Drew Barrymore, Justin Long in Nanette Burstein's Going the Distance
At no. 5 was Going the Distance, a $32m romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, which pulled in only $6.88m at 3,030 theaters, averaging a paltry $2,272 per venue according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. New Line (by way of distributor Warner Bros.) has a major dud in its hands.
Sylvester Stallone's violent actioner The Expendables was the no. 6 movie, collecting $6.59m (-30.8%; total: 92.15m; cost: $80m), followed by the Will Ferrell-Mark Wahlberg comedy The Other Guys with $5.4m (-14.1%; total: 106.86m; cost: $100m).
Next in line was the Julia Roberts-Javier Bardem-James Franco romantic drama Eat Pray Love with $4.85m (-28.8%; total: 68.95m; cost: $60m) at no. 8.
Rounding out the top twelve were Inception with $4.53m (-7.1%; total: 277.1m; cost: $160m), Emma Thompson's Nanny McPhee Returns with $3.57m (-24.2%; total: 22.44m; cost: $35m), Jason Bateman-Jennifer Aniston's The Switch with $3.06m (-33.1%; total: 21.44m; cost: $19m), Vampires Suck with $3m (-42.5%; total: 32.29m; cost: $20m).
Three 3-D movies (say that really fast) vied for the next three spots at the domestic box office: Despicable Me was no. 13 with $2.82m, followed by a (for the time being) tie between James Cameron's Avatar: Special Edition, shown exclusively at 3D/IMAX venues, and Alexandre Aja's Piranha 3D with $2.3m.
Who'd have thought that in its first rerelease the mighty Avatar would be gone from the top twelve chart in a mere week and would be running neck-and-neck with an exploitation flick starring sharp-toothed little fish. Avatar's per-theater take was a paltry $2,833. (To date, Avatar has collected a grand total of $765.4m in the US/Canada.)
Among the top twelve movies, Takers had the highest per-theater average, $5,190, followed by The American with $4,594 and Machete with $4,232. Vampires Suck had the lowest, $1,233.
Also among the top twelve, Inception posted the lowest drop-off rate, -7.1%. The Last Exorcism had the highest, -62.5%.
Photo: Going the Distance (Jessica Miglio / New Line Cinema / Warner Bros.).