Seven-Day Summary: 'Resident Evil' Owns First Week of Fall
Resident Evil: Afterlife shot to the top this week with the highest-grossing start in its franchise. The rest of the field didn't fare so well: after receiving Labor Day boosts last week, holdovers The American, Takers and Machete all fell more than 50 percent. Overall, the week was down nearly 11 percent from the same timeframe last year when I Can Do Bad All By Myself led the way.

Grossing $33.9 million, Resident Evil: Afterlife topped previous series-best Resident Evil: Extinction's $28.8 million. When adjusted for ticket price inflation and 3D premiums, however, Afterlife actually had the least-attended opening week of the eight-year old franchise. Despite fewer people seeing it, Afterlife will soon exceed the first Resident Evil's $40.1 million final gross and will ultimately challenge Resident Evil: Apocalypse's series-high $51.2 million total.

After trailing Takers by less than $1,400 for the weekend, The American played better Monday through Thursday and move up a slot to second place. Still, the George Clooney assassin movie plummeted a massive 60 percent to $7.7 million for a 16-day total of $30.1 million. That was a much steeper drop than similar Labor Day weekend adult fare like The Constant Gardener and Traitor, though The American was still ahead of both movies in both gross and attendance.

Takers finished in third place for the second consecutive week despite a substantial 53 percent drop. Its $7.3 million third week take brought its total to a solid $49.4 million.

Machete took a beating this week, falling 64 percent to $6 million. This was slightly steeper than Grindhouse's second-week decline, but, with a $22.6 million two-week total, Machete will top Grindhouse's $25 million final haul.

Among the three Labor Day releases, Going the Distance was off a comparatively light 48 percent to $5.3 million, but its two-week total of $15.4 million was anemic.

The Expendables added another $4.4 million to bring its total to an impressive $99.7 million in 35 days. Sylvester Stallone's action ensemble will pass the $100 million mark by day 36.

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Weekly Box Office, September 10-16

• Daily Grosses

• All-Time Domestic Grosses