Box Office Report: Machete Don't Text

Dude here again. Well, it's Labor Day weekend over in these parts, which means the end of crappy summer flicks and the beginning of pretentious Oscar-bait flicks! Personally, though, I prefer the January dumping grounds, but it's a nice change of seasons.

It's kind of sad that these are my seasons, but in LA, it's the only way you know what month is it.

This weekend, the estimates are even tighter than last weekend's neck-and-neck race. But as with most things in life, Clooney shall prevail. Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates. The actuals will be available on Monday, as these are holiday numbers).

1. The American (Foc) - $12.9, 2823 screens, week 1, $16.1 total

2. Takers (ScrGms)- $11.4, 2206 screens, week 2, $37.9 total

3. Machete (Fox) $11.3, 2670 screens, week 1, $11.3 total

4. The Last Exorcism (LGF) - $7.6, 2874 screens, week 2, $32.4 total

5. Going The Distance (NL)- $6.8, 3030 screens, week  3, $6.8 total

6. The Expendables (LGF)- $6.5, 3398 screens, week 4, $92.1 total

7. The Other Guys (Sony) - $5.4, 2607 screens, week 5, $106.8 total

8. Eat Pray Love (Sony) - $4.8, 2663 screens, week 4, $68.9 total

9. Inception (WB)- $4.5, 1704 screens, week 8, $277.1 total

10. Nanny McPhee Returns (Uni)- $3.5, 2708 screens, week 3, $22.4 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, it means that George Clooney rules all! How smooth is he? He tricked boat loads of audiences into seeing his art film, by making people think it was an action thriller. That Clooney, so smooth.

In Clooney's wake is last week's champ Takers, which won the photo finish, and according to this, looks like it will do another photo finish over Machete, which is a film almost as fantastically gory as Piranha 3D and Expendables. It really needs to be seen to be believed, but apparently not too many people are going to see it.

Going The Distance? Looks like nobody's going the distance to the theater. Zing!

Nobody seems to care about those other movies. So I'm gonna follow suit. Sure, I could take this moment to wrap up the summer numbers, but that's a lot of work, dealing with a lot of money you and I will never see.

Fun Fact: Avatar - Special Edition is making MacGruber numbers!

Below the radar, there's this movie called A Woman A Gun and A Noodle Shop, which is a Chinese remake of the Coen Brother's first movie, Blood Simple, took in $27,700 on 5 screens. 

So there, you have my amazing break down. Next week, we got ourselves a new Resident Evil movie! And probably some other things too, as serious movies begin unfurling below our feet!

Until next weekend....

(All Numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo)