By Scott Mendelson HollywoodNews.com: Proving once again that films aimed at older audiences have theoretically stronger legs than those aimed at teens, The Expendables and “Eat Pray Love” both had strong weekend multipliers and both performed at or above realistic expectations. With all the hub-bub regarding ‘the guy movie vs. the chick flick’, both films posted exceptional opening weekends and both respective marketing teams should be commended. As for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, its frontloaded and underwhelming debut proves that geek cultures is not mainstream culture, and that hardcore geek interest should not be mistaken for mainstream interest. With films like that, the only real victory should be the fact that it got made and released. Anyway, here we go… The Expendables ended the weekend with $35 million, giving it a decent 2.64x weekend multiplier. As mentioned yesterday, this is the massive win that Lionsgate needed to prove that they could open something other than Saw sequels and Tyler Perry dramas to anything resembling blockbuster numbers. As I’ve written any number of times, if you take away the Saw sequels and the Tyler Perry pictures, the studio’s biggest opening weekend was Fahrenheit 9/11 with $23.9 million and The Haunting In Connecticut with $23 million. Be it Rambo ($18.2 million), Kick Ass ($19.8 million), 3:10 to Yuma ($14 million), or Killers ($15.8 million), Lionsgate has had a problem opening seemingly break-out pictures above their $15-19 million ceiling. At $35 million, The Expendables posted the second biggest opening weekend in Lionsgate history, besting the $33.6 million debut of Saw III and falling short of the $40 million debut of Madea Goes to Jail. For comparison, the prior best opening weekend in Lionsgate history for something that was not a Madea picture or a Jigsaw epic were the $23 million debuts of Fahrenheit 9/11 (which broke a record for a film opening under 1,000 screens set by Stallone’s Rocky III back in 1982) and The Haunting In Connecticut. Lionsgate has had several high-profile disappointments of late, not so much flops as heavily-hyped pictures that none-the-less failed to break the $21 million opening weekend ceiling that Lionsgate seems to have. That they could successfully open this mainstream entertainment as large as any other studio is an encouraging sign that Lionsgate can play in the bigger studios’ sandbox. The film cost $82 million, but Lionsgate paid just $20 million for distribution and offered up marketing expenses [...]