Another week goes by...

The weekend figures hardly held my interest. Takers, a tale on a group of bank robbers, narrowly edged out The Last Exorcism to top the weekend box office while The Expendables dropped to third. The most interesting thing to watch was the re-release of Avatar. Why, you may ask. No clue. Give the fans nine additional minutes of unreleased footage, maybe. The $4 million that it earned during the weekend helped it to cross $750 million on the US box office. For those who still have no clue about its worldwide collections, it stands at a pretty cool $2.7 billion. That is way ahead of the previous No 1 - Titanic with $1.8 billion.

The other notable stories include Toy Story 3 crossing $1 billion in worldwide box office collections, making it just the seventh Hollywood movie to do so (and second of the year after Alice in Wonderland), Stallone expressing his interest to cast Bruce Willis as the villain for the sequel to Expendables (if Schwarzenegger is in it, then I am watching) and the trailer release of Oscar winner Danny Boyle's latest movie, 127 Hours (weird trailer, but worth a watch).

Vampires Suck....

As expected, The Expendables continues its reign at the top of the box office though a 50% dip in its second weekend takes the US gross to $65 million after the first 10 days. It was Vampires Suck that took the second spot despite the terrible reviews for this spoof on vampire flicks. Shows that mindless attempts at comedy too can drag in the crowd as can mindless action. Jeniffer Aniston's The Switch has been hardly impressive, opening at the eighth spot and likely to be forgotten soon. So nothing significant to talk about. Maybe next weekend would be better.

Ho-Hum weekend awaits...

Nothing big seems to be on the horizon this weekend that might dethrone The Expendables from the top spot. There is the sequel Nanny McPhee Returns and also The Switch staring Jennifer Aniston, but none of these seem to be the kind that would make you wait desperately for the Friday sunrise. Instead one could check out the trailer for The Next Three Days starring Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks which might prove to be more entertaining. One could also rejoice in the latest accomplishment for Toy Story 3 - becoming the highest worldwide grossing animated movie ever, grabbing a spot above Shrek 2. In India, Cats & Dogs 2 is being released which again would not pull the common man easily to the cinema. The movie was released 3 weeks back in the US and has barely managed to earn one-third of its predecessor. Seems a talking fur-ball is not always that enthralling!

Stallone kicks to the top & Woody makes it big!

What does it take to make it to the top of the weekend box office? Muscles. As simple as that. The brawn of the Expendables marched on to the top of the weekend box office with $35 million ticket sales in US. While the movie could have been much better in terms of creating more intricate personalities for its leads, I guess the old throat-cutting, gun-slinging action is still in demand. The Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World however could not bring in the green bucks despite the positive reviews and landed up on the fifth spot. It was surprisingly Julia Roberts' 'Eat Pray Love' that slotted in the second spot, grossing $23 million.

Woody and his gang crossed the $400 million mark, the second animated film to do so after Shrek 2. Toys do sell big! And finally, Salt became the 16th movie to hit the $100 million in the US box office this year. Not many left, I believe, that will achieve this feat in 2010.

Dare to take on the Expendables?

In the eigth month of the year, and only 15 movies have managed to cross the $100 million mark in the US market so far. Compare that with the 30 movies that achieved this feat in the previous year and you will share my concerns. Toy Story fans would however watch with bated breath as the third edition inches ever so close to the grand $400 million mark, that would make it only the 11th movie in the history of US cinema to achieve this feat. Despicable Me crossed $200 million in the previous week, demonstrating the growing love for animated cinema and becoming the fourth animated film this year to cross over to the 200+category (others being Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After, How To Train Your Dragon).

This weekend would see the release of Stallone's The Expendables, featuring a cast of hard-hitting action men with the much talked about cameo appearance of Arnold Schwarzenegger. How good this movie will be? Well, Stallone's last two directorial movies earned bucks and were critically appreciated - Rambo IV and Rocky Balboa. So this might just not be a 'shoot and kill' flick after all. Would be worth a watch! Then on the other end of the spectrum, there is Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, featuring Stallone's antithesis, Michael Cera. A guy having to defeat his girl's seven exes, who would not root for this dude! Two movies to enjoy, though either of them making the $100 million mark seems unlikely. We'll know though once the weekend numbers start churning in...