Bruce Willis in 'The Expendables 2' rules the box office

'The Expendables 2' and 'The Bourne Legacy' could have legs at the box office over the coming weeks.

The Expendables 2 will top the box office over the weekend, grossing an estimated $28.7 million. The original action mash-up grossed scored $34 million in 2010 and topped out at $103 million domestic and $274 million globally. However, this new effort has better reviews (read ours) and even more star fire-power, so it could potentially do better in the long-run – or at the very least at the global box office. 

The film does beat the average opening weekend of most of its stars. An average Stallone movie debuts to around $12 million and a Statham vehicle usually launches to just over $10 million. Bruce Willis usually garners about $13 million worth of audience interest, while the average weekend gross for a Schwarzenegger movie is $15 million. Having said that, most of these films opened in a time when ticket prices were much lower.

Fellow action sequel, The Bourne Legacy dropped to second place, it should bank $17 million for the weekend, raising its cume to $69.5 million. It looks like there’s life in this Matt Damon-free franchise yet, in fact you could say it has been re-Bourne (zing!). Sure, it hasn’t managed to hit the grosses of the Damon movies, but it is difficult rebooting a franchise without its original star AND its original character.

Family film, ParaNorman (read our review) should score $14 million over the weekend – a relatively weak number when you take into account it’s inflated 3D ticket price.

The Campaign, should get another $13.3 million, showing that viewers are voting with their wallets on this. The film has now grossed over $51 million – it’ll never make $100 million, but it will be a solid hit.

Whitney Houston’s final screen appearance in Sparkle captured so-so audience interest in a crowded marketplace, grossing $12 million. It could potentially do a solid final number – if it finds audience traction.

The Dark Knight Rises is set to gross an estimated $11.1 million, for a $409.9 million total cume. It’s starting to tumble(r) down the box office chart, and it doesn’t have much life left, but it is a very respectable number (great even). Sure, it’s not The Avengers or The Dark Knight, but it has surpassed The Hunger Games as the second highest grossing film of the year at the domestic box office.

Disney’s The Odd Life Of Timothy Green is doing good business as a piece of counter-programming. The Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton film should see a weekend take of $10 million, for a $15 million total.

Meryl Streep’s latest comedy/drama isn’t finding a massive audience. Hope Springs should bank $9 million for a solid but it won’t reach the dizzy heights of recent Streep starrers.

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid should bank $3.8 million for a $38 million total, while Total Recall rounds out the top ten, grossing $3.5 million for a $51.7 million total haul. Globally, the Colin Farrell film is on track to cover its production budget, having grossed over $58 million abroad. However, it looks like Farrell won’t be back in the role of Doug Quaid.

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

Niall Browne blogs at Screen Rant.