It was a slightly unusual weekend at the US box office, where forecasters differed widely on how they thought different movies would do. However the film that came out on top is The Last Exorcism, the horror mockumentary that’s benefitted from clever marketing and good word of mouth. The film made $21.3 million, which is very impressive for a film with a budget under $2 million.
In second place was the ensemble heist thriller, Takers, starring the likes of Hayden Christensen, Paul Walker, Zoe Saldana, Matt Dillion and Idris Elba. Interestingly, while it placed second with $21 million, because if was playing in 600 fewer theatres, Takers actually make more money per screen than Last Exorcism did.
However the movie, or rather re-release, that really had box office watchers guessing was Avatar, with some wondering whether six extra minutes would push the movie back towards the top of the box office charts. In the end it did $4 million over the weekend putting it number 12 on the list, which isn’t too bad for a film that’s playing on fewer than 1,000 screens, was only in cinemas previously six months ago and has just been released on DVD, but isn’t exactly a massive jump back to the top of the chart. Indeed, there’s a almost a feeling this re-release is more a publicity stunt for the upcoming home ent. release, which will include even more previously unseen footage.
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of August 27th-29th.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | The Last Exorcism | $21.3 | $21.3 |
| 2 | Takers | $21.0 | £21 |
| 3 | The Expendables | $9.5 | $82.0 |
| 4 | Eat Pray Love | $7.0 | $60.7 |
| 5 | The Other Guys | $6.6 | $99.3 |
| 6 | Vampires Suck | $5.3 | $27.9 |
| 7 | Inception | $5.1 | $270.7 |
| 8 | Nanny McPhee Returns | $4.7 | $17.0 |
| 9 | The Switch | $4.6 | $16.4 |
| 10 | Piranha 3D | $4.3 | $18.2 |