In a result that came as a surprise to many box office prognosticators, bank robbery won out over teen snarkiness this weekend in the States as Ben Affleck’s heist/romance drama The Town scored victory over Emma Stone in Easy A. Affleck’s second stint* behind the camera took the top spot with $23.8 million, meaning that the teen comedy drama had to settle for second place. Still, Easy A took in $18.2 million, which isn’t bad for a film that cost $8 million to make.
And despite some of the negative reactions the trailer has been getting (mostly due to producer/story creator M Night Shyamalan’s name), lift-set horror thriller Devil scored a decent third place arrival with $12.5 million, which we’re sure Universal will be happy about. The three newbies shoved Resident Evil: Afterlife down to fourth, with the latest in the game-based franchise dropping 62% for $10.1 million.
Rounding out the top five was final new entry, CG wolf animation comedy** Alpha & Omega**. Though it was seemingly primed to offer some kiddie-focused counterprogramming to the rest of the new releases, it didn’t seem to take off with audiences, nabbing $9.2 million.
The rest of the charts saw some movement, with Takers sliding down to sixth from second place and $3 million. **The American **dropped from third to seventh with $2.7 million, while Inception defied expectations to jump back from 10th to eighth and $2.1 million. That pushed it back ahead of The Other Guys, which went down to ninth with $2 million this weekend. And sitting at the bottom? Machete, with $1.7 million.
Crack the safe for the charts over at Box Office Mojo.
*We're not counting his short, I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney