The new George Clooney vehicle The American has taken the top spot at the US box office this weekend with a total of $16m in revenue, while Robert Rodriguez’s “mexploitation” actioner Machete is in third place, having managed to bring in just over $11m.
Both of these figures are relatively small but as the summer season is over, the large popcorn audience are probably a bit fatigued, plus it’s usually the time of year that Hollywood roll out the smaller films.
Clooney’s film fits more into the arthouse slot (it’s a slow, moody piece from the director of the Joy Division biopic Control) so it’s understandable why it didn’t make the same figures as the “Ocean” films did on their debuts, but it would have been nice to see Machete open a little better.
Similar to the low box office for Scott Pilgrim v.s The World a couple of weeks back, the problem here appears to be that the niche market which is being catered for isn’t quite large enough to really bring in the big figures, but I’m sure it’s a film (like Pilgrim) which will find a huge audience on it’s DVD release.
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