There was blood lost at Friday's box office, with a flurry of new low-budget wide releases, including Weinstein Co. creature-feature remake "Piranha 3D" and Universal family-movie follow-up "Nanny McPhee Returns," all failing to deliver.
In fact, despite the fact that it declined 62 percent from its debut a week earlier, Lionsgate action ensemble film "The Expendables" won the day with just over $5 million.
Here's the top 10 (complete box office report continues below):
With the domestic box office pacing about 6 percent below the same weekend last year, which was led by the $38 million debut of Weinstein's "Inglorious Basterds," Fox's satirical "Vampires Suck" finished in second place, adding $4.4 million Friday to its coffin … er, coffers.
Released Wednesday, the $20 million comedy from spoof specialists Aaron Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer ("Meet the Spartans," "Disaster Movie") has grossed $10.8 million through its first three days and is expected to tally more than $18 million by the end of the weekend.
But that's pretty much where the happy news ends for the weekend's five new wide releases.
Among them, only Warner's African American-targeted comedy "Lottery Winner" — which opened to $3.7 million Friday — is expected to hit the $10 million mark. The movie, which stars Ice Cube, Bow Wow and Terry Crews, cost production company Alcon Entertainment $17 million to make.
Most disappointing is "Piranha 3D," which came in with a fair amount of good buzz and an 82 percent Rotten Tomatoes score.
While actor Michael Cera took the brunt of the blame for last week's surprise cratering of "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World," the erstwhile 3D Revolution should probably get some of the credit for this resounding thud.
Undoubtedly, with "Piranha 3D" mostly playing on 3D screens (2,202 out of its 2,470 North American engagements were 3D-equipped), a lot of youthful moviegoers resisted the notion of paying 15 bucks or more to see a genre film.
"Piranha," which costs more than $24 million to shoot and convert to 3D, is pacing to deliver only about $8.6 million this weekend.
Universal's "Nanny McPhee Returns," meanwhile, debuted to just $2.7 million and is on pace for less than $9 million for the weekend.
Starrring Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Ralph Fiennes, and produced for around $35 million after tax breaks, the family-targeted sequel is lagging way behind the $14.5 million start of the original in January 2006. Fortunately for Universal, the film has already tallied $62.6 million internationally.
One other wide release Friday, Miramax's quirky Jason Bateman-Jennifer Aniston comedy "The Switch," debuted to $2.7 million. The good news? It could do as much as $8 million this weekend, defying pre-release predictions of around $6 million.
