Two widely-expected debuts, featuring veteran action star Sylvester Stallone and actress Julia Roberts respectively, opened at the top two positions of the box office, relegating Warner Bros' "Inception" into the fourth place, the North America box office authority said on Sunday, Xinhua reported.
"The Expendables," a Liongate action-war film co-written and directed by Sylvester Stallone who also acted with Jason Statham and Jet Li, is projected to sell 35 million dollars worth of movie tickets in Canada and the United States, landing the top position of the box office derby of the weekend.
The film tells the story of a group of mercenaries hired to infiltrate a South American country and overthrow its ruthless dictator. Opening on approximately 4,300 screens at 3,270 locations, the Stallone film is his best premiere weekend ever.
"Eat Pray Love," a Sony drama featuring Julia Roberts, is estimated to sell 23.7 million dollars worth of admitting stubs, well on track for a second place showing.
Based on the best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, the film deals with the experience of a conflicted woman who travels around the world and discovers the powers of nourishment, prayer, and love during her journey.
Premiering on close to 3,700 screens at 3,082 locations, the film topped the 20 million dollars mark set by "Julie & Julia" during the first weekend showing last August. It also marked Julia Roberts' biggest launch in a top-billed role since "America's Sweethearts" in 2001. Seventy-two percent of moviegoers are female, and more than half of them are those 35 years and older, according to distributor Sony Pictures.
The remaining movies in the top five, in terms of estimated sales from Friday evening through Sunday night, are:
-- No. 3, "The Other Guys," Sony/Columbia, 18 million dollars this weekend, 70.5 million dollars over two weeks;
-- No. 4, "Inception," Warner Bros., 11.4 million dollars this weekend, 248.6 million dollars over five weeks;
-- No. 5, "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World," Universal, debuting with 10.5 million dollars this weekend.