Weekend Box Office - Revenge Of The Low Budget Flicks

The blockbusters have come and gone. Summer might as well be over. But this weekend two movies arrived in theaters which not only took the top two spots, they also managed to make back their budgets in just one weekend.

At $1.8 million The Last Exorcism is one of Eli Roth's lowest budget major release projects, but it also turned out to be one of his biggest sellers. At $21 million it was not only the weekend's top movie, it's the largest opening a Roth project has enjoyed.

Writer/director John Luessenhop's first wide release project, Takes, took a close second place with $21.0 million. It's not an impressive total, but compared to the movie's simple $20 million budget it's a great first step towards solid profitability.

James Cameron, who somehow found a way to make Avatar longer, unleashed said special edition in 800+ screens, but it would seem audiences have largely shaken their giant blue animated warrior addiction. The movie only banked $4 million and a non-chart worthy twelfth place.

For the complete weekend box office estimates check out the chart below:

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1.The Last Exorcism *$21,300,000 -Total: $21,300,000LW: N WR: 1
THTRS: 2,874
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2.Takers *$21,000,000 -Total: $21,000,000LW: N WR: 1
THTRS: 2,206
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3.The Expendables$9,500,000 -Total: $82,010,000LW: 1 WR: 3
THTRS: 3,398
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4.Eat Pray Love$7,000,000 -Total: $60,716,000LW: 3 WR: 3
THTRS: 3,108
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5.The Other Guys$6,600,000 -Total: $99,300,000LW: 5 WR: 4
THTRS: 3,181
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6.Vampires Suck$5,300,000 -Total: $27,912,000LW: 2 WR: 2
THTRS: 3,233
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7.Inception$5,105,000 -Total: $270,749,000LW: 9 WR: 7
THTRS: 2,070
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8.Nanny McPhee Returns$4,743,000 -Total: $17,020,000LW: 8 WR: 2
THTRS: 2,798
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9.The Switch$4,658,000 -Total: $16,484,000LW: 7 WR: 2
THTRS: 2,017
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10.Piranha 3D$4,308,000 -Total: $18,272,000LW: 6 WR: 2
THTRS: 2,491