Box Office: TAKERS and LAST EXORCISM Duke it Out for Top Spot

Summer is quickly coming to an end and the quality of movies is heading downhill just as fast. Labor Day is next weekend and that represents the official end of the summer movie season. Next weekend we will wrap up the summer with a box office report of the biggest films of summer 2010.

For now, this weekend was a neck-to-neck race between the heist thriller Takers and the horror movie The Last Exorcism. Final numbers will not be in until Monday morning, but for now the estimates show Last Exorcism as the number one movie with $20.3 million and Takers very close behind with $20 million. The other new release this weekend was the re-release of Avatar with extended footage. Avatar added another $4 million for a number 12 opening. Not as good as many anticipated, but let’s not forget: everyone has already seen Avatar at least once.

The top five of the weekend box office looked like this:

Dropping to number three this week (after two weeks at number one) is Stallone’s The Expendables which grossed another $9.5 million. After three weeks of release The Expendables has earned $82 million.

Number four went to Julia Robert’s Eat Pray Love which made another $7 million bringing its total to $60 million.

The comedy The Other Guys starring Will Ferrel and Mark Whalberg rounded out the top five with $6.6 million. After four weeks of release this comedy from director Adam McKay has almost earned $100 million. With $99.3 million in the bank, The Other Guys is definitely a summer hit.

Check out the top ten films at the U.S Box Office for the weekend of August 27-29th: