Mid-September Derby

Now with Crispy Creme Add On!

The Top Ten shows no animated entrants, unless you count the effx of the tentpole horror-action offering that sits at the top of a lacklustre heap.

1. Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D (Screen Gems/Sony) NEW [3,203 Theaters] -- Friday $11M, Estimated Weekend $28M

2. Takers (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 3 [2,191 Theaters] --Friday $1.7M, Estimated Weekend $5.7M, Estimated Cume $47.5M

3. The American (Focus Features) Week 2 [2,833 Theaters] -- Friday $1.7M (-55%), Estimated Weekend $5.7M, Estimated Cume $28.2M

4. Going The Distance (NL/Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,030 Theaters] -- Friday $1.3M (-39%), Estimated Weekend $4.5M, Estimated Cume $14.7M

5. Machete (Fox) Week 2 [2,678 Theaters] -- Friday $1.3M (-65%), Estimated Weekend $4.5M, Estimated Cume $21.1M

6. The Last Exorcism (Lionsgate) Week 3 [2,731 Theaters] -- Friday $1.0M, Estimated Weekend $3.5M, Estimated Cume $38.2M

7. The Other Guys (Sony) Week 6 [2,246 Theaters] -- Friday $975K, Estimated Weekend $3.3M, Estimated Cume $112.5M

8. The Expendables (Lionsgate) Week 5 [3,058 Theaters] -- Friday $950K, Estimated Weekend $3.2M, Estimated Cume $98.5M

9. Eat Pray Love (Sony) Week 5 [2,339 Theaters] -- Friday $875K, Estimated Weekend $3M, Estimated Cume $74.7M

10. Inception (Warner Bros) Week 9 [1,583 Theaters] -- Friday $825K, Estimated Weekend $2.8M, Estimated Cume $282.3M

The most interesting thing about the new Number One is it was shot in Real Three Dee, not that phone-baloney stuff. That should make all the difference.

Add On: At the finish, it's Resident Evil by a country mile, earning $27.7 million (in real Three Dee!) while everything else in the Top Ten finishes in single digits.

In the animation and pseudo animation departments, Despicable Me sees a 50% drop in receipts ($1.5 million), declines to #14 in Your Movie Hit Parade and now owns a domestic total of $243.4 million.

Avatar, the Expanded Reissue and Toy Story 3 each drop 60+% to fall from the Top Twenty. Each makes $715,000. AVer now totals $9.8 million while TS3 possesses a $410 million domestic total.