"Takers" top box office weekend
This week's top winners
In a neck-and-neck race, the crime thriller "Takers'' edged out the horror tale "The Last Exorcism'' to top the weekend box office, but only by about $146,000, according to final figures released.
"Takers" earned $20.512 million in its debut weekend, while "The Last Exorcism'' debuted with $20.366 million, according to Hollywood.com.
"The Last Exorcism'' began the weekend in first place thanks to a big Friday, but its drop-off in audience over the next two days allowed "Takers'' to claim the top spot, the box-office tracker reported.
"The Expendables'' continued to attract movie-goers, earning another $9.5 million to place third, while Julia Roberts' "Eat Pray Love'' earned $6.8 million.
The Will Ferrell-Mark Wahlberg buddy comedy "The Other Guys'' collected $6.3 million to place fifth.
Rounding out the top 10 films were "Vampires Suck'' ($5.2 million); "Inception'' ($4.9 million); "Nanny McPhee Returns'' ($4.7 million); "The Switch'' ($4.6 million); and "Piranha 3D'' ($4.3 million).
LOS ANGELES - George Clooney assassinated the competition to top the box office over the Labor Day weekend with his thriller "The American,'' besting the debut of "Machete'' and outpacing last week's champ, "Takers,'' according to final figures released.
"The American'' earned $16.7 million between Friday and Monday's Labor Day holiday, while "Machete'' -- starring first-time leading man Danny Trejo -- collected $14.1 million in its debut to place second, according to Hollywood.Com Box-Office.
LOS ANGELES - "Resident Evil: Afterlife" killed the competition this weekend, with IMAX digital showings making up about 10 percent of the total gate.
The thriller opened with $26.7 million in ticket sales, according to figures released by Hollywood.com. It is the fifth number-one opener this year from Sony.
Sony also has the number two movie this weekend: "Takers," which took in $5.7 million in admission tickets this weekend, for a three-week running gate of $47.7 million.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—"Paranormal Activity 2'' surprised Hollywood with a $41.5 million opening weekend.
"Jackass 3-D'' held on to second place, despite a 57 percent drop in ticket sales from its smash debut last weekend. The film is estimated to make $21.6 million this weekend.
"Red'' was in third place with $15 million this weekend.
The Clint Eastwood movie, "Hereafter,'' moved from limited to general showings this weekend, and is expected to gross $12 million in receipts to the $320,000 it took in last weekend.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—"Saw 3-D'' scared up the most bucks at the weekend box office.
The latest installment in the "Saw'' fright flick franchise sold an estimated $24.2 million during its debut weekend, according to ticket tracker Hollywood.com.
Another scary movie sequel, "Paranormal Activity 2,'' came in second, with an estimated $18.5 million in sales.
The action comedy "Red'' came in third, with a projected take of $10.8 million.
Rounding out the top 10:
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—"Jackass 3-D'' rocketed to an opening weekend that is much larger than analysts' expectations, and will become the highest-grossing October release ever with a $50 million estimated take.
Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian said the third installment in the "Jackass'' genre had "a massive, much bigger-than-expected opening...''
The Paramount release had the best debut since "Inception'' opened last July, he said.
