An adult drama with overwhelmingly negative word of mouth sounds like a surefire box-office disaster in modern Hollywood, but George Clooney defied the odds this weekend.
Despite exit polls that indicated it was the most disliked movie released so far in 2010, Clooney's "The American" opened No. 1 at the box office this weekend, collecting an estimated $16.4 million in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through the Monday holiday and $19.5 million since it opened Wednesday.
The low-budget action film "Machete" from director Robert Rodriguez opened to a strong $14 million, primarily from Latino audiences. But the Drew Barrymore-Justin Long romantic comedy "Going the Distance" barely got off the runway with a soft $8.6 million.
Though those are not particularly high grosses for opening weekends, they're right in line for Labor Day, when movies are not at the top of many people's agendas. Total ticket sales over the four days were $125 million, according to Hollywood.com, virtually even with last year.
ABC News President David Westin will leave the network's top news job at end of the year, he told colleagues Monday night in an email.
Westin, who has been on the job for 13 years, is leaving after the division eliminated 300 positions in an attempt to adapt to the changing news business. He is the second top executive to leave the network in recent months. In late July, Steve McPherson, ABC's top entertainment boss, was replaced. Westin, 58, has installed new top anchors at "World News," "Good Morning America" and "This Week" in the past year.