Moviegoers spend on “The Expendables”

If Hollywood had a more stringent steroid policy like Major League Baseball, then you’d have to put a fat asterisk by the near-$35 million take of “The Expendables.” The action film easily finished ahead of the rest of the pack. Chick flick “Eat Pray Love” starring Julia Roberts did rather well for second and final newcomer “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” disappointed a bit at $10 million.

1. The Expendables – $34.8 M (weekend) … $34.8 M (gross)
2. Eat Pray Love – $23.1 M … $23.1 M
3. The Other Guys – $17.4 M … $69.9 M
4. Inception – $11.2 M … $248.4 M
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – $10.6 … $10.6
6. Despicable Me – $6.97 M … $222.1 M
7. Step Up 3D – $6.90 M … $29.8 M
8. Dinner for Schmucks – $6.2 M … $58.7 M
9. Salt – $6.2 M … $103.4 M
10. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore – $4.1 M … $35.2 M

I’m upset that I let fanboy hype affect my prediction again for the tiny built-in audience that “Scott Pilgrim” had. Just like with “Kick-Ass” back in April I was too generous. My other predictions were on the money quite literally, but I predicted “Scott Pilgrim” to make more than half of what it did. Even if I downplayed my prediction like I considered, I would’ve never gone that low.

Last week’s champ, “The Other Guys,” did well again this week staying up in third while “Inception” continues to perform strongly in this its fifth weekend, falling 40 percent despite being pulled out of nearly 300 theaters.

The bottom half of the top ten was up for grabs with four films finishing within $7 million of each other. As such “Salt” went from fourth place last weekend to ninth this weekend, also partially due to being removed from close to 500 theaters.

Meanwhile, leaving the top ten after eight long weeks was “Toy Story 3,” the number one animated film of all time, which passed the $400-million mark this week.