‘Takers,’ starring T.I. and Hayden Christensen, lands at #2 for the weekend.By Adam Rosenberg

Ashley Bell in “The Last Exorcism”

Photo: Lionsgate

It was a close weekend race at the box office, but in the end the powers of evil overtook the powers of, well, less evil. The Eli Roth-produced, Daniel Stamm-directed horror mockumentary “The Last Exorcism” took the #1 position this weekend with $21.3 million in ticket sales spread out over 2,874 screens. Trailing only slightly behind in the #2 position was the heist flick “Takers,” with a take of
$21 million from 2,206 screens.
Even though it emerged on top, “Exorcism” is a bigger winner than it seems to be. While no budget has been reported, the single camera format, absence of big stars and minimal special effects couldn’t have driven the film’s cost very high. Even factoring in marketing — which has been largely focused online with viral campaigns like — a $20+ million box office take is a considerable win.
“Takers,” by comparison, boasts a star-studded ensemble that draws from both Hollywood and the music biz. Chris Brown and T.I. star alongside Hayden Christensen, Idris Elba, Matt Dillon and Zoe Saldana in a crime drama about a high-level, high-stakes bank robbery. The film’s budget is reported to hover around $20 million.
It’s a sharp dip after that for positions three through five, which are filled by movies that came out earlier in August. The action throwback “The Expendables” came in at #3 with $9.5 million, slightly more than half of what it earned last week. Still, with a total gross of roughly $82 million — more than double its reported budget — in just 17 days, the Sylvester Stallone-directed/written/starring flick is no small success.
Spots four and five went to a pair of Sony releases, “Eat Pray Love” and “The Other Guys,” which brought in $7 million and $6.6 million, respectively. The surprise for the weekend was the theatrical re-release of “Avatar.” Opening on roughly 800 screens with the benefit of 3-D and an added nine minutes of footage, the movie only managed to pull in $4 million, good enough for a #12 spot on the weekend list.

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Doug Liman?s political drama ?Fair Game? will screen at the Austin Film Festival, fest organizers announced Tuesday.
Among the ten films thus far lined up for the screenwriter-focused fest, which runs October 21-28, are Travis Fine?s drama ?The Space Between,? starring Melissa Leo; David Palmer and Dax Shepard?s ?Brother?s Justice,? starring Shepard, Tom Arnold and Bradley [...]

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Not playing second fiddle to Beyonce sure suits Kelly Rowland. Mind you, there’s no beef between now-grown Destiny’s Children, per se. But Kelly Rowland’s really come into her own as a solo artist as of late, collaborating with top0notch producers to create a fresh sound and subsequently revamp her image.
Now she’s Kelly [...]

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Lohan’s co-stars praise the performance by the actress, who recently left rehab.By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Kara Warner

Jessica Alba, Danny Trejo and Michelle Rodriguez at the “Machete” premiere

Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Most of the cast of “Machete” was on hand in Los Angeles on Wednesday (August 25) to celebrate the premiere of their B-movie-inspired, Robert Rodriguez-directed flick. But one of the film’s stars was noticeably absent: Lindsay Lohan, who had been released from rehab a day earlier. The young actress’ road to recovery was on the mind of her co-stars.

“You know what, I just care about her as a person,” Don Johnson told MTV News on the red carpet. “God bless her and she’s gonna do fine.” That sentiment was mirrored by Danny Trejo, who added, “Get home, girl! You’re gonna be all right. She’s gonna be fine. She knows what to do.”
Another one of the flick’s stars, Cheech Marin, wanted to let Lohan know he supports her, and that he hopes this incident will be a catalyst for her getting her life back on track. “I wish her all the best. I mean, she’s a talented young actress,” he said. “Hopefully, she won’t let her personal life overwhelm her professional life … at some point, you gotta be responsible.”
Michelle Rodriguez felt that publicly wishing Lindsay the best would not just benefit her former co-star. “I just think everybody should have in mind that when you wish the best for people around you, it only makes your country, your society, your culture better,” she explained. “So I think that we should all just respect the evolutionary paths of people and as much as we possibly can wish for the better, for light.”
Earlier in the night, Jessica Alba praised Lohan, saying, “She’s so good in this movie. I can’t wait for people to see [her in] it.”
Praise for Lohan’s performance also came from the film’s director. “She’s awesome in the movie. That’s what they’ll see: the actress behind all that paparazzi nonsense that follows her and won’t leave her alone,” Robert Rodriguez said. “They’ll get to see her and say, ‘Oh, that’s why we follow her around.’ ”
Check out everything we’ve got on “Machete.”
For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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‘We all root for each other,’ she tells MTV News.By Kara Warner

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Photo: MTV News

Ever since the first “Twilight” film was released — kicking off the phenomenon that has included record-breaking box-office numbers, fainting fans, megawatt premieres, etc. — the suddenly superstar cast has been catapulted into a spotlight none of them saw coming. As such, the actors are very much in demand and currently working on a number of projects.
When Nikki Reed stopped by MTV News recently to discuss her film “Last Day of Summer,” we asked her which of her co-stars’ upcoming films she’s most excited to see.

“All of them,” she said. “I love Taylor [Lautner] so much, and I’m so proud of him and what he’s doing. He’s making a great movie in Pittsburgh right now,” she said, referring to the John Singleton-directed action thriller “Abduction.”
“I’m excited about Rob [Pattinson]‘s movie ‘Water for Elephants,’ ” she added. “I think he’s going to be phenomenal in that, and Kristen [Stewart] is doing an amazing film ['On the Road']. Elizabeth Reaser just did a movie called ‘Homework’ with Michael Angarano, who’s a really good friend of mine, and Emma Roberts that I’m excited about.”
Reed and her co-stars have so many projects going that she was hard-pressed to remember everyone’s work schedule. “We all root for each other,” she said.
Speaking of which, the multi-talented and multi-tasking actress, who recently directed Sage’s music video for “Edie Sedgwick,” lit up at our question about whether she would consider directing a music video for her co-star Jackson Rathbone’s band, 100 Monkeys.
“Would I ever! Jackson and I are on the phone every other day, because we’re trying to find a movie to do together. I forgot to mention him — his band is skyrocketing. It’s amazing,” she gushed. “I would be honored. I don’t want to take the position: ‘Would I ever.’ If he would ever let me, yeah. I love them.”
Check out everything we’ve got on “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.”
For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

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Lady Gaga debuts on the list at #7, after earning more than Madonna in the past year.By Gil Kaufman

U2′s Bono

Photo: Harry Herd/ Getty Images

It just stands to reason that if you put on the biggest rock tour in history, you’re going to make some serious coin. That might explain why more than three decades into their career, U2 easily took the top spot on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s top-earning musicians, which also included newcomer Lady Gaga, as well as some of the usual suspects like Madonna, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen.
Like most of the artists on the list, the veteran Irish rockers did it with touring cash, in their case the coin from their gigantic 360 Tour, which netted them $130 million over the past 12 months by selling more than 1.3 million tickets for an average price of $94 apiece in North America. The tour grossed $311 million, and each stop had gross ticket receipts of $10 million, but the band’s bottom line was also boosted by healthy merchandise sales, as well as strong radio play for their deep back catalog, which continues to sell well. The outing was temporarily derailed this year due to Bono’s back injury, but U2 plan to return to North American shores next summer for a victory lap.
The Forbes tally, which counted earnings between June 2009 and June 2010, had another veteran band at #2: power rockers AC/DC, who stormed back last year with a tour that grossed $2.3 million a night and helped them earn $114 million on worldwide grosses of $226 million.
Making a stand for the ladies, Beyoncé netted $87 million to become the highest-earning female on the list at #3. A healthy dose of her take was courtesy of major endorsement deals with Nintendo and L’Oréal, sales from her House of Dereon fashion line, and the $86 million in gross receipts from her 93-date world tour.
New Jersey rock icon Springsteen also made most of his money on the road, raking in $70 million by selling more than 2 million tickets on his world tour, which grossed $167 million. Heavy radio play and the sales of lots of catalog albums also helped him lock down the #4 slot on the list.
It was another solid year for Britney Spears, who earned the #5 position with the fifth-highest grossing tour of the year, which brought in gross receipts of $130 million. She also rang up big cash for endorsement deals with Elizabeth Arden and Candies, which added to her $64 million in earnings. Jay-Z gave wifey Beyoncé a run for her money, taking the #6 position with $63 million he brought in from his stake in the New Jersey Nets NBA team, 40/40 nightclub chain, the hit Broadway show “Fela!,” Blueprint 3 sales and the album’s tour, which grossed more than $1 million a night.
Gaga, 24, crashed the list at #7 thanks to strong CD and download sales, her smash worldwide Monster Ball tour and million-dollar endorsement deals with Virgin Mobile, Polaroid, Viva Glam and Monster Cable, which netted her $62 million. She beat out one of her musical and sartorial touchstones, Madonna, who hit the #8 spot with earnings of $58 million thanks to her Sticky and Sweet Tour, the fourth highest-grossing outing of 2009, which raked in $6 million a night for a $138 million gross. The pop legend also made cash from an all-Madonna episode of “Glee” and earned a lump of cash from her lucrative publishing royalties.
Country star Kenny Chesney landed at #9 with $50 million in earnings from a $71 million grossing tour and prominent sponsorships with Corona and MasterCard.
The final spot was a three-way tie between the Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay and Toby Keith, all of whom brought in $48 million. The unstoppable Peas did it with a worldwide tour that brought in $800,000 a night, as well as a raft of endorsement deals with Target, Honda, Bacardi and Apple computers. Coldplay’s tour dates for 2008′s Viva la Vida grossed more than $105 million as well as millions in merchandise sales. Keith made $30 million in gross concert receipts and earned the rest from a growing chain of restaurants, stakes in several publishing companies and millions a year from publishing royalties. 

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