Weekend box office: The Expendables 2 beats out The Bourne Legacy

Brad Sturdivant August 19th, 2012

Weekend box office: Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables 2

I don’t think you can write a story about THE EXPENDABLES 2 without doing a few jokes about old guys, but even the most jaded of fans have to admit it’s cool to see all of your favorite action heroes together on the big screen, lighting up the weekend box office, even if little things like plot and character development are sacrificed in the process. But America seems to enjoy watching their favorite stars of yesteryear struggle through their stunts as THE EXPENDABLES 2 is set to pull in over $30 million in its opening weekend. It will probably fall just short of the original film’s $34 million, but it’s a nice haul for a late summer action film.

There were two other, kid friendly films that opened this weekend with PARANORMAN and THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN. Both of them did moderately well, although I’m guessing Disney won’t be celebrating Green’s less than $10 million at the weekend box office (keep in mind it opened on Wednesday and has made about $15 million so far). But Focus Features should be happy about $13 million for PARANORMAN considering it was a tough movie to market given the creepiness factor and the release date. And the late Whitney Houston found some success at the weekend box office as well, with SPARKLE taking in about $14 million.

Next week sees the release of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s PREMIUM RUSH, which hasn’t gotten a lot of marketing effort and will probably struggle to find an audience. My guess is that THE EXPENDABLES 2 should make it two in a row. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.

1. The Expendables 2 $30m

2. The Bourne Legacy $16.8m

3. Sparkle $14m

4. ParaNorman $13.4m

5. The Campaign $12.8m

6. The Dark Knight Rises $10.5m

7. The Odd Life of Timothy Green $9.9m

8. Hope Springs $8.7m

9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days $3.8m

10. Total Recall $3.5m

(Deadline)