Friday Report: 'If I Stay' Ascends to First Ahead of 'Sin City' Debacle
If I Stay easily took first place on a quiet Friday at the box office. Meanwhile, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For had a horrible start in sixth place, and won't come anywhere close to $10 million this weekend.

Playing at 2,907 theaters, If I Stay opened to a solid $6.83 million. That's above Charlie St. Cloud ($5.6 million) and last weekend's The Giver ($4.75 million). If it plays like The Fault in our Stars, it will finish the weekend with less than $13 million; a more likely outcome is a pattern similar to Divergent, which would put it at just over $16 million.

That would likely allow Guardians of the Galaxy to move back in to first place in its fourth weekend. The movie was off a light 30 percent to $4.8 million; for the weekend, it should wind up between $16 and $17 million. It passed Maleficent yesterday, and it will become the highest-grossing movie of the Summer (ahead of Transformers: Age of Extinction) sometime today.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took third place with $4.54 million (down 43 percent). For the three-day weekend, Ninja Turtles should wind up around $15 million. Meanwhile, Let's Be Cops eased 43 percent to $3.23 million, and is on track for at least $10 million this weekend.

In fifth place, When the Game Stands Tall opened to an estimated $3 million. That's a bit lower than recent sports movies Draft Day ($3.6 million) and Million Dollar Arm ($3.5 million). For the weekend, it should end up around $9 million.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For bombed with $2.6 million. That's off a stunning 78 percent from the first movie, and that's with nine years of ticket price inflation and the addition of 3D premiums. It's also less than half of The Expendables 3's poor start from last weekend. The Sin City sequel could theoretically wind up below $6 million for the weekend, though it's more likely that it earns between $6 and $7 million.

Weekend Projections

1. Guardians - $16.7 million

2. If I Stay - $16.4 million

3. Ninja Turtles - $15.3 million

4. Let's Be Cops - $10.6 million

5. Game Stands Tall - $9.5 million

6. Sin City - $6.1 million

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Related Chart:

Grosses for Friday, August 22, 2014