Weekend Box-Office: August 24-26, 2012

Expendables 2 still hits #1!

As the summer comes to a close, it’s doing so pretty quietly — even with all the gunshots and detonations, THE EXPENDABLES 2 didn’t make a lot of noise in its second week. But it still fired up enough crowds to take the top spot again with $13.5 million, and Sly’s mercenary mayhem has collected $52.3M after 10 days (compared to the original THE EXPENDABLES’ $65.3M after that period).

The entire top four held their positions from last week, with THE BOURNE LEGACY again the runner-up with another $9.3 million (and an $85.5M total so far). In third with $8.5M is the stop-motion animated supernatural tale PARANORMAN, which seems to be getting positive reactions from audiences.

The Will Ferrell/Zack Galifianakis political showdown THE CAMPAIGN stayed in fourth with $7.4M, while THE DARK KNIGHT RISES sneaked up a spot into fifth with $7.1M and a $422.1M domestic total (putting it at #11 on the list of all-time domestic moneymakers). Disney’s THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN wasn’t far behind in sixth with slightly less cash (although they could switch places when the actual totals are calculated tomorrow).

You have to look allllllll the way down in seventh for a new movie: the Joseph Gordon-Levitt thriller PREMIUM RUSH, which opened to just $6.3 million. Gordon-Levitt may have been in one of this year’s biggest box office performers, but taking center stage as a bicycle courier proved more of a challenge in getting attention than being a potential successor to the cowl (although PREMIUM RUSH getting being bounced around the release schedule for over a year probably didn’t help either — it was shot in Summer 2010, long before the actor filmed in Gotham).

The other new releases fared even worse — Dax Shepard’s low-budget chase comedy HIT & RUN (which had a Wednesday head start) just squeaked into the top 10 with $4.6 million. That’s still better than Dark Castle’s latest spooker THE APPARITION, which only scared up $2.9 million and didn’t even crack the list. 

The biggest surprise on the list is the conservative political documentary 2016: OBAMA’S AMERICA, which expanded from limited release to more than 1000 screens, and took eighth place with $6.2 million and the highest per-screen average in the top ten. SPARKLE, TOTAL RECALL and DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: DOG DAYS all departed the chart this weekend to make some space.

Next weekend brings the period crime story LAWLESS (aka THE WETTEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD) with Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy, the family movie OOGIELOVES IN THE BIG BALLOON ADVENTURE (huh?), and horror flicks THE POSSESSION and THE TALL MAN.

What remaining major movie of 2012 are you most looking forward to seeing? VOTE HERE!