The Cinema Numbers Review For 8/16/10: The "Expendables" Become A Dependable #1

I have to firmly admit, I was very shocked to see the numbers coming in for the box office this week. It was a banner weekend for Syl Stallone and his group of old action heroes, as they are #1 in the weekend numbers this week.

Even when The Expendables came on tracking, it looked big. And the timing couldn't have been better what with Lionsgate getting beaten up by Carl Icahn on a daily basis, and Sylvester Stallone needing a fresh hit in his dotage. Kudos to Sly for coming up with such an irresistible concept directing and starring with today's and yesteryear's action heroes like Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, and even Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger (for nanoseconds in cameos). "Are The Expendables wearing Dependables?" one rival studio exec snarked in an email to me.

The star power was just too hard to resist.

But clearly the biggest shock of the week is how bad the numbers were for the much hyped "Scott Pilgrim vs The World."

A 5th place showing behind holds overs "The Other Guys" and "Inception", as well as the crappy "Eat, Pray, and Love", which somehow finished in the runner up.

Despite its quality reviews and how it is still the top trending topic on Twitter as of this post, it couldn't move anything more than $10 million:

This odd but innovative movie based on a comic book is yet another greenlight from the fired Mark Shmuger at Universal. He's the gift that keeps on giving the studio expensive underperformers. Yet the current regime embraced Scott Pilgrim vs The World as a counterprogramming maneuver this weekend even though they knew auteur filmmaker Edgar Wright's $60M budget (even with location credits) envelope pusher wouldn't open or earn out. But that's only because it got great reviews (which younger moviegoers rarely read) and an "A-" CinemaScore. The audience was 64% male/36% female, and 58% under 25 yrs of age/42% 25 yrs and older. Uni tried to hype the genre-bending pic as too cool for the room and claim it didn't know if Scott Pilgrim would make $5M or $15M this weekend. But the pic will do exactly what Uni execs predicted to me it would: a pittance. "Regardless of the perceived outcome, we are proud of this film. Studios need to continue to offer audiences good and original ideas/films," Uni said today. "We do wish a greater number of people went to see the film."

What a surprise and what a shame.

That's the main numbers review for the Cinema this week.