“Expendables 2″ Tops Box-Office, Aging Action Stars Rejoice

Against what I can only assume is their severely paralyzed judgment, American audiences spent $28.8 million to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Chuck Norris perform their old bodybuilding and ninja tricks even though they are all well on their way to 70. Well, America, don’t say I didn’t warn you. They’re punching out the script of the third one as you read this.

Holding second place was last week’s champ (and much, much better movie), The Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner in the relaunch of the Bourne franchise. Though it fell 55% from its first week, it still managed to add another $17 million to its domestic haul. It has now earned as much after ten days as the last Bourne movie starring Matt Damon earned over its first weekend.

The latest computer animated family feature, ParaNorman, came in third with $14 million (fairly weak as animated features go) and fourth spot went to the Will Ferrell-Zach Galifiankis comedy, The Campaign.

The much-ballyhooed last movie of Whitney Houston, Sparkle, debuted in fifth place with a $12 million opening. Robert Pattinson’s Cosmopolis, meanwhile opened with the best per-screen average of any movie in the nation. It will release wide within the next two weeks.