"Machete" Fails to Top Box Office: "American" Wins

Yesterday's news that Anton Corbijn and George Clooney's The American would out-perform Machete by a million or so was surprising enough, but now guess what?

Machete has fallen to third place behind Takers and is now looking at $11 million or so for the weekend.

What a tumble!

I presume it's that word-of-mouth Trejo + Rodriguez + too-much-blood-and-wanking-around factor. A major stunner for Team Rodriguez. Right now they're all sitting around with forlorn faces and asking themselves, "What happened?"

The American is now estimated to finish with about $16.3 million, Takers (down 44% from last weekend) will snag about $11.4 million, and Machete, as noted, will earn about $11 million.

Followed by The Last Exorcism ($7.6 million), Going the Distance ($6.8million), The Expendables ($6.6 million with a $92.2 milllon cume), The Other Guys ($5.4 million, $106.9 million total), Eat Pray Love ($4,850,000 with a $69 million cume) and Inception ($4,550,000 with $277 million total).