Box Office - 'Expendables' Blows Up Competition

The theater was pretty well packed when I checked out The Expendables at midnight on Friday, and the box office held strong the rest of the day, picking up $13.5 million on opening day. That is good enough to lead the way through one day and will probably be enough so that Expendables can coast to a 10 - 15% win over Eat Pray Love, a diametrically opposed chick flick with Julia Roberts.

The Sylvester Stallone-led Expendables will probably fall pretty quickly, since the performances are so bad and the action's only passable. Word of mouth could catch up to this soon, but not so soon that it plummets immediately. I do think the $13.5 million is easily the high point, though.

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Fearless Forecast: 'Expendables' Eats 'Eat Pray Love'

While not really a wide open weekend - one movie has a distinct advantage, I think - this is one of those rare times during a year when multiple films will probably find their target audiences, make money in the long haul, and do it even though a couple carryovers are still doing good business.

The lead dog in the race is The Expendables, which has been moved a couple times, I think, and usually when that happens, you'll see it reflected in a slightly lower theater count. By the time it comes out, a movie moved from one quarter to another is kind of an afterthought in many cases because the financial projections for the company have already been built and everything. However, Lionsgate is going as wide with this film as it ever does, and Sylvester Stallone's latest will open in over 3,000 theaters. It will do pretty well, at least at first, but it's possible this one slides quite a bit next weekend.

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Video: The Economically Inclined 'Other Guys' Credits

If you haven't seen The Other Guys, this may actually be better. The closing credits, while related to the crime sub-plot of the movie, are completely separate from the film. They'll probably be up for some kind of award, if that exists.

Because the criminal in The Other Guys is bilking the public out if its money, director Adam McKay went to William Lebeda and Picture Mill to develop something really unique for the end of the movie. It's not funny, it doesn't look or feel like The Other Guys - more like I.O.U.S.A. - and it makes you think. Lebeda was contacted by Moviefone, who said, "We did a little bit of research. To get specific numbers, we hired a copywriter, Mark Tapio Kines. He found all the numbers through different online sources." "Sony had to vet everything to confirm we weren't making up facts," added Lebeda. And here are the facts they found:

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Sequels for 'Step Brothers' and 'Other Guys'?

Adam McKay goes as Will Ferrell goes, at least for the time being. They're partners in Gary Sanchez Productions, have a joint stake in Funny or Die, and they've collaborated on four summer comedies in six years. The one they're probably most famous for, Anchorman, won't get a sequel. Neither, it appears, will the most financially successful one, Talladega Nights.

But McKay tells MTV that Step Brothers 2 will probably happen, and all of a sudden, we might also get a sequel to The Other Guys. "Those are the next two," McKay says, pointing out that before the sequels ever happen, he will go off to direct a bio-pic of former George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan strategist Lee Atwater and the comic book adaptation The Boys. Neither of those, by the way, involve Ferrell outside of a producer's credit.

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Box Office - 'Other Guys' Scores Terrific Friday

A big start for The Other Guys is officially the death knell for Inception's run as box office champeen. Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg drew $13.2 million on Friday, more than twice as much as the second-place finisher, also not Inception.

For Ferrell, it's great news, because he's struggled over the past few years to really have a solid showing with anything. Step Brothers seems like an anomaly at $100 million when you look at the five or so films around it chronologically, but The Other Guys should have a debut weekend over $30 million, but there will be comedy competition over the next few weeks, so I'm not holding my breat that this gets to $100 million. That we'll know more about after next weekend. And while Sony is clinking champagne glasses over another successful mid-budget opening (along with Salt, Grown Ups, and The Karate Kid, Disney is befuddled again by what should be a wholesale hit but isn't.

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