Box Office - 'Last Exorcism' Leads Surprising 'Takers'

What? Really? Takers is on pace to generate about $20 million in business this weekend, and in fact, if it were in as many theaters as the more aggressive (and more heavily advertised and better-reviewed) The Last Exorcism, Takers might have been the number one movie this weekend. What? Really? On Thursday, I didn't give the movie a chance in hell, and even in just over 2,000 theaters - not a huge number by any means but still technically a wide release - Takers made $7.5 million on Friday. That's a bold beginning for a film that features what could be the poorest construction ever for a major studio movie poster. As for The Last Exorcism, it started with just under $10 million, and that should taper off quickly if other horror movies are our guide. Maybe it won't, though; the reviews have been fairly solid, and if critics like a horror film, odds are audiences will, too, because critics generally hate horror for some reason. I don't think this one leapfrogs $30 million, but it should land comfortably around $25 million or so. The odd part about this weekend is, late August and early September are the dregs. Hollywood is rolling out the stuff that doesn't play better earlier in summer and gearing up for the Toronto Film Festival, so the industry does not put powerhouses here. These aren't powerhouse numbers, of course, but two movies with $20 million potential this week - or certainly $40 million between them - is a surprise. Everything else will be below ten million, with The Expendables leading the way for older releases. It should do about $8 million this weekend, putting the film in the black, at least in terms of recouping production costs. But it'll be a sizable hit when it's all said and done. Drop down a few pegs and there's Avatar, hoping to generate about $3 million or so in its re-release. That, actually, reinforces the point I made earlier about late August weekends being soft in the middle: Fox wouldn't throw this in theaters on a competitive weekend, or wouldn't intend to. But that is somehow what has happened here.