Labor Day audiences turn out for 'The American'

By Sarah Sluis

Machete and The American were neck-and-neck throughout the four-day Labor Day weekend. Machete led during its debut Friday, earning $3.9 million to The American's $3.84 million. After Friday, the George

Clooney thinking man/spy film pulled ahead, rising Saturday and Sunday and finishing the four-day weekend with $16.3 million. Machete, the Mexploitation picture from Robert Rodriguez, never matched its Friday night debut and finished with $14 million. Labor Day weekend is notoriously slow, however, so both of these films performed well in terms of their time slots and genres.

Debuting in fourth place, Going the Distance brought in a lackluster $8.9 million over the weekend. This makes the movie a loser even among romantic comedy bedfellows like Love Happens and The Switch (both of which were probably worse than this one, starring Drew

Barrymore and Justin Long). The movie's release date was changed from August 27th to September 3rd at the last minute, which could have affected grosses. The American and Going the Distance also drew large portions of their audience from the 25+ and 35+ crowd. For a movie like The American, that's fine, but a romantic comedy needs support from younger audiences, who didn't seem to show up in enough force.

As the summer movie season wraps up, several movies actually increased from their previous week. Family movies and word-of-mouth hits were the biggest beneficiaries. Despicable Me, Toy Story 3 and The Sorcerer's Apprentice increased from last week, even without taking the holiday into account. With the extra day added in, the special effects movie of the summer, Inception, boosted its take 20% along with cop comedy The Other Guys, which went up 5.8%.

Among limited releases, a Chinese remake of the Coen Brothers movie Blood Simple, A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop, opened to a $7,000 per-screen average playing on five screens. Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 yielded a $3,000 per-screen average playing on over thirty screens. The prior film, Mesrine: Death Instinct, opened in late August to a $5,000 per-screen average, so the second film may be a tougher sell.

This Friday will be slow at the box office, with Resident Evil: Afterlife (3D) leading releases and teen sex comedy The Virginity Hit opening under the radar in a limited release.

'Machete,' 'Going the Distance,' and 'The American' vie for Labor Day audiences

By Sarah Sluis

The final week of the summer movie season is usually a slow one at the box office. The sun-seeking beachgoers on the East Coast may have to trade in their beach blankets for theatre seats because of Hurricane Earl, potentially boosting the grosses in that area of the nation.

Opening in the widest amount of theatres, Going the Distance (3,030 theatres) should appeal most to female audiences drawn in by the friendly, lovable star Drew Barrymore. Guys may be surprised by the more vulgar humor and male bonding that takes place between leading man Justin Long and friends Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis. The romantic comedy is expected to earn somewhere above $10 million.

A full-length version of a trailer in Grindhouse, Machete (2,670 theatres) stars Danny Trejo as a Mexican Federale who becomes a vigilante after being double-crossed. The female co-stars are

tough in real life, known for being tabloid fodder and/or for their run-ins in the law: recently released inmate Lindsay Lohan plays a frequently naked nun, former inmate Michelle Rodriguez plays an organizer who works out of a taco truck. Jessica Alba, with the comparatively tame moniker "style icon," suits up as an immigration officer. The movie's stance on immigration comes across as political in the wake of Arizona's controversial immigration policy. According to critic Ethan Alter, the filmmakers "[use] the film as a vehicle to pointedly tweak the anti-immigration rhetoric expressed by a certain segment of the American public," but "subtle" these references are not. This homage to exploitation movies should earn in the high teen millions, and because of its appeal to male and Latino audiences, who are known for being first-weekend audiences, it's my pick for number one.

A quiet (some say slow) tale of a hit man (George Clooney) taking a break in Italy, The American (2,823 theatres) opened on Wednesday to $1.6 million, a head start that indicates the movie will hit the low teen

millions. Critic Ethan Alter astutely observes that the role doesn't play to Clooney's strengths as an actor. He "thrives when playing a determined man of action with a quick wit and/or a clearly stated goal," but here "he barely registers a pulse onscreen. Some actors can say volumes with a single expression�Clooney usually requires at least a line or two of dialogue as well." Director Anton Corbjin (Control), who started out as a photographer, "tells the story through a series of carefully composed still frames with minimal camera movement." This movie may not be getting the positive buzz that screams "awards season," but should appeal to indie-loving, mature audiences eager to escape popcorn pics.

Another crime-focused offering, the French movie Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1, will unspool in 28 theatres. A follow-up to Mesrine: Death Instinct, the biopic follows a real-life French criminal played by Vincent Cassel. "[A] towering achievement of the crime genre," according to critic Doris Toumarkine, and "the action scenes...induce total immersion in what transpires."

On Tuesday, we'll circle back to crown the winner of the four-day holiday weekend and see which of the trio of wide releases distinguished itself the most. Goodbye, 2010 summer movie season!