Weekend Box Office: 'Expendables 2' Leads, but Falls Short of First Movie

There may have been too many cooks in the kitchen this weekend at the box office, as even the leading movie was a little bit lacking in the numbers.

That leading movie was "The Expendables 2," which brought in $28.7 million over its first weekend. That puts it behind the first movie by about $6 million, as the original "Expendables" earned about $34.8 million at its opening. It's easy to blame the slight dip on the fact that there were four fairly high-profile movies coming out this weekend rather than on the fact that this sequel is pretty much the same as the original: lots of stuff blows up.

Second place went to "The Bourne Legacy" with another $17 million in its second week. That puts the cume for the movie at $69.5 million, and puts it on pace to be a mildly successful endeavor.

"ParaNorman" came in third place, as the animated feature brought in $14 million. That's not a great haul considering the movie's heavy marketing and 3D ticket sales, but it's right about in line with "Coraline" (made by the same company), which earned a little over $16 million in its first weekend and had the advantage of being adapted from a popular book.

"The Campaign" snuck into fourthplace in its second weekend with $13.3 million for a cume of $51.6 million. That's a drop of about 50% for the movie, which is good considering the B- Cinemascore for the movie, which can't be helping word of mouth.

That means that the weekend's third big opener, "Sparkle," managed a fifth place finish. The musical movie starring Jordin Sparks and Whitney Houston earned $12 million in this opening weekend, which is on the low end of projections but puts it in the position to be plenty profitable, as it cost only $14 million to make.

Other notables include "The Dark Knight Rises" in sixth place with about $11 million, which passed the $400 million domestic mark this weekend. "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" debuted in seventh place with $10.9 over the weekend, though it had an early mid-week opening, so its cume over the last 5 days is around $15 million.

1. "The Expendables 2" - $28.7 million
2. "The Bourne Legacy" - $17 million ($69.5M)
3. "ParaNorman" - $14 million
4. "The Campaign" - $13.3 million ($51.6M)
5. "Sparkle" - $12 million