PREDICTED WEEKEND BOX OFFICE

It was a race to the finish line last week, as two new movies fought it out for number one at the box office. Sunday afternoon early predictions had the new horror film The Last Exorcism taking the number one spot with $20.3 million. But as of Monday morning, the clear winner for the weekend was the action-filled drama Takers, which earned $20.5 million. Both films will have their work cut out for them this weekend with three more new movies entering the box office charts, including director Robert Rodriguez's Machete, Going the Distance starring Drew Barrymore, and The American with Oscar winner George Clooney.

Predicted to debut at number one this week is the long-awaited new motion picture from visionary director Robert Rodriguez called Machete, which is based on the short film that was featured in his and Quentin Tarantino's movie Grindhouse. The film stars Danny Trejo (Heat) in the title role and also features a colorful cast of accomplished actors including Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four), Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar), Jeff Fahey (Lost), Cheech Marin (The Perfect Game), Don Johnson (Miami Vice), Steven Seagal (Half Past Dead), Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls) and Oscar winner Robert De Niro (Raging Bull).

Currently, the movie has an average rating of a 4.7 on our site. Out of the twenty people who have rated the film, thirteen of them have given it five stars. While the trailer for the movie has had over 12,000 views. Here is what one of our readers who has already seen it had to say about the new movie: "This film was very enjoyable, bloody and just plain awesome. The directing was absolutely incredible, Robert Rodriguez did an amazing job and ever shot was great." The movie is predicted to earn $21.5 million this weekend in its debut.

Predicted to debut at number two is the new international espionage thriller starring Oscar winner George Clooney (Syriana), entitled The American. Currently, the movie has an average rating of a 3.2 on our site. Unfortunately, out of the seven people who have rated the film only three gave it four stars and no one has given it five stars yet. The trailer for the movie has had almost 2,000 views. Here is what our Official Reviewer had to say about the new movie: "The American is like a paperweight sitting on your head for two hours!" The movie is predicted to earn $19.1 million this weekend in its debut.

Predicted to debut at number three this week is the new romantic comedy about long distance relationships called Going the Distance. The movie boasts an all-star cast of comedic actors including Drew Barrymore (The Wedding Singer), Justin Long (Live Free or Die Hard), Christina Applegate (Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore), Ron Livingston (Office Space), Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Rob Riggle (The Hangover) and Jason Sudeikis (Saturday Night Live). Currently, the film has an average rating of a 3.1 on our site. Out of the eight people who have rated the film, only three of them have given it five stars while the trailer for the movie has had over 11,000 views. Here is what one of our readers had to say about the new film: "It looks funny." The movie is predicted to earn $17.6 million this weekend in its debut.

Predicted to fall three places from its debut last week at number one is the hip-hop heist film Takers. The movie boasts an all-star cast, which includes Paul Walker (Fast & Furious), Idris Elba(The Losers), Matt Dillon (Armored), Hayden Christensen (Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith), Michael Ealy (Miracle at St. Anna), Jay Hernandez (Quarantine), Chris Brown (Stomp the Yard), T.I. (American Gangster), and Zoe Saldana (Avatar). Last weekend the movie made $9,298 on each of its 2,206 screens for an opening weekend total of $20.5 million, earning back their $20 million production budget. The movie is predicted to earn an additional $15.7 million this weekend.

Predicted to fall three places from its debut last week is the Eli Roth produced scare-fest The Last Exorcism, which stars Patrick Fabian (Must Love Dogs), Louis Herthum (I Love You Phillip Morris) and Ashley Bell (State of Play). Last weekend the movie made $7,087 on each of its 2,874 screens for an opening weekend total of $20.3 million, earning back their entire $1.8 million production budget and then some. The movie is predicted to make an additional $12.1 million this weekend.

The rest of the top ten films at the box office this weekend are predicted to look like this:

Predicted to drop three places from last week to number six is the action-packed film, The Expendables from writer/director and star Sylvester Stallone. Besides Stallone, film stars an array of the toughest action stars from several different decades including Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. While the movie dropped almost 44.0% last week from the previous week, it actually managed to add 128 theaters for a total of 3,398 and earn roughly $2,796 in each for a weekend total of $9.5 million. Now in just over three weeks the movie has made about $82 million earning back its entire $80 million production budget. The film is predicted to earn an additional $7.3 million this weekend at the box office.

Predicted to fall three spots from last week to number seven is Eat, Pray, Love directed by Ryan Murphy (Glee) and based on the internationally popular novel by author Elizabeth Gilbert. The film stars Oscar winners Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, as well as Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins, Golden Globe winner James Franco and Billy Crudup. While the film dropped 42.2% from last week the previous week, it still managed to add 26 theaters for a total of 3,108 and earned roughly $2,252 in each for an additional $7 million this weekend. Now in just over three weeks the movie has become a solid hit making about $60.7 million so far and earning back its entire $60 million production budget. The film is predicted to earn an additional $5.1 million this weekend at the box office.

Predicted to drop three places from last week to number eight is buddy-cop action/comedy film The Other Guys starring Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Keaton and Eva Mendes. While the movie dropped 35.1% from the previous week, it was shown on 291 less screens for a total of 3,181 and earned almost $2,075 on each for a weekend tally of $6,6 million. Now in just under a month the movie has done extremely well earning $99.3 million, which puts it just shy of making back its entire $100 million production budget. The film is predicted to earn an additional $4.9 million this weekend at the box office.

Predicted to fall only two places from last week to number nine is unarguably one of the biggest hits of the summer, Inception, the extremely popular sci-fi action thriller from director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight). The film stars an incredible cast of actors including Oscar nominees Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page and Ken Watanabe, Oscar winners Marion Cotillard and Michael Caine, as well as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, and Lukas Haas. While the film dropped 37.8% last week from the previous week and was seen on 331 less screens, it still managed to earn roughly $2,356 in each of its 2,070 theaters for a weekend total of $4.8 million. Now in just seven weeks the film has earned $270 million, which surpasses its purported $160 million production budget. The film is predicted to earn an additional $4.1 million this weekend.

Rounding off the list this week and predicted to fall four places from last week to number ten is the vampire spoof-film Vampires Suck starring Ken Jeong, Matt Lanter, Anneliese van der Pol and Charlie Weber. While the film dropped 57.2% last week from the previous week, it earned roughly $1,615 in each of its 3,233 theaters for an additional $5.2 million. Now in just over two weeks the movie has made about $27.8 million, earning back its entire $20 million production budget. The film is predicted to earn an additional $2.1 million this weekend at the box office. Be sure to check out Box Office Beat Down this Sunday to see who is crowned the King of the box office this week and check back here next week for more box office predictions!