Sylvester Stallone’s star-studded action film The Expendables opened unexpectedly strongly at the U.S. box office this past weekend, finishing atop the sweepstakes with an estimated gross of $35 million. A good deal less appealing was the Julia Roberts chickflick Eat Pray Love, bringing in an estimated $23.7 million.

Don’t cry for Roberts et al., however, as films with strong appeal to adult females tend to have longer shelf lives and ultimately make more money than their first weekend would suggest. In addition, EPL took in $3 mil more than industry insiders had expected.

I haven’t seen Eat Pray Love yet (and am not exactly going to rush to the multiplex for the privilege), but the presence of the word pray in the title may have helped the film’s prospects with audiences, suggesting an appeal to people’s spiritual side. Actually, however, Eat Pray Love has more to do with the cheesy (and false) myth that life gets much better for a woman after she gets divorced, according to reports. Well, fantasy films are big draws nowadays. . . .

Or perhaps the word eat grabbed the attention of the nation’s middle-aged ladies.

There’s no question about the appeal of Stallone’s latest. Action, explosions, obvious libertarian-conservative values, and a star-studded cast featuring Stallone, Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and Eric Roberts plus cameos from Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger make this a no-brainer choice for fans of 1980s action films—of which there are undoubtedly many as evidenced by the popularity of recent films such as Taken and The A-Team.

What is a bit surprising is that The Expendables managed to draw slightly better reviews than Eat Pray Love, according to Rotten Tomatoes, with 43 percent positive ratings as opposed to EPL’s 39 percent.

The critically well-received films The Other Guys and Inception stayed strong at third and fourth, respectively. The comedy Scott Pilgrim Versus the World got off to a clumsy start, finishing fifth with an anemic estimated gross of $10.5 million, even though there was little competition in its demographic bracket, teenagers.

Once again, in reviewing Pilgrim the critics showed their distance from audience tastes: 81 percent approved of the film while audiences stayed away.