'Expendables 2' Topples 'Bourne Legacy' At Weekend Box Office

"The Expendables 2" packed enough punch to topple "The Bourne Legacy" from the top of the box office over the weekend, but the sequel's debut fell short of the original's muscle.

Sylvester Stallone and his band of action-movie veterans' collected an estimated $28.7 million on their second go-round together. The number was enough to beat "Bourne" as well as newcomers "ParaNorman," "Sparkle" and "The Odd Life of Timothy Green," but less than the $34.8 million debut of "The Expendables" in 2010.

Box-office experts had predicted a number closer to $40 million for the old-school action adventure, but "Expendables 2" was still a success for Lionsgate. The studio behind "The Hunger Games" spent a reported $35 million for the rights to the movie in the U.S. and U.K. With a CinemaScore of A- from the folks who saw it already — and an older demographic that doesn't always rush out to see a movie on opening weekend — industry forecasters predicted decent business.

The previous weekend's #1 film, "The Bourne Legacy," dropped 55 percent to $17.02 million. The first "Bourne" film without Matt Damon in the lead has made $69.5 million domestically thus far. "The Bourne Ultimatum" had made $131.6 million by the same point in its theatrical run; "The Bourne Supremacy" $98.8 million.

The best reviewed of the weekend's new films, "ParaNorman," was #3 with $14 million. "ParaNorman," the second 3-D stop-motion feature from Laika Films (the folks behind "Coraline"), is about a boy who's bullied because of his love of creepy things and his ability to speak with ghosts. It sat at 87 percent on film review aggregator RottenTomatoes.com at press time, and audiences gave it a B+ CinemaScore.

Audiences turned out to see Whitney Houston's final performance in "Sparkle" to the tune of $12 million, which put the film at #5 on the box-office scorecard. The remake of a 1976 movie about a Motown-style girl group stars Houston alongside Jordin Sparks, Carmen Ejogo and Cee Lo Green, among others.

The similarly modest-budgeted "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" debuted at #7 with $10.9 million. Disney's magical tale, about a childless couple whose wishes cause a 10-year-old boy to sprout from their garden, played in less than 2,600 locations; by comparison, "Expendables 2" was in 3,316. "Timothy Green" was conceived by Ahmet Zappa (son of the legendary Frank) and "About a Boy" writer Peter Hedges, who also directed. It had a 38 percent "Rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Robert Pattinson's "Cosmopolis" rounded out the weekend's new releases. While "Water for Elephants" had Reese Witherspoon's star power and a popular book as source material to lean on, Pattinson's other non-"Twilight" films, including "Bel Ami," "Remember Me" and "Little Ashes," haven't done well audiences or critics. "Cosmopolis" (from "The Fly" director David Cronenberg) opened with mixed reviews at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year but since then, more critics warmed up to the picture, with 64% of the reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes giving it positive marks. Over the weekend, it played in three theaters (in Los Angeles and New York), where it averaged $24,109 per location for a total of $72,327.

Pattinson recently told that making "Cosmopolis" finally made him "feel like an actor."

Check out everything we've got on "Cosmopolis."