It’s not unusual for Labor Day weekend to have low box office numbers. Families usually try to get that one last trip to the beach in before fall officially starts, and don’t typically spend a lot of time at the movies. Even though the numbers for this time of year aren’t normally great, two of last week’s new films took over first and second at the box office. An other less fortunate new release set the record for the worst nationwide opening ever.
1. ‘The Possession’
Although this weekend was a little slow, Lionsgate’s The Possession not only ranked first at the box office, but also ranked second place among Labor Day openers (just behind 2007′s Halloween remake with $30.6 million). The Possession pulled in $21.1 million during the four-day weekend. Although that’s a great number for the Labor Day weekend, it’s behind Lionsgate’s other recent horror movies - The Last Exorcism and The Haunting in Connecticut (both with a $30 million opening weekend). With the Halloween season quickly approaching (it’s September already!) The Possession may stay popular at the box office for a while. At least until this season’s other horror flicks hit theaters.
Related: The Possession Movie Review
2. ‘Lawless’
Debuting last Wednesday, Lawless only brought in $2.1 million in it’s first two days in theaters. Add that to the four-day weekend total of $12.9 to bring the six-day domestic box office total of the film to $15 million. It’s enough to claim second place this week, but with the star power of Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain, and Guy Pearce, it’s a disappointing number overall.
3. ‘The Expendables 2′
Still in the top five with the number three spot is The Expendables 2. The Labor Day weekend added $11.5 million to the film, bringing it’s domestic total to $68.6 million. Although the film has been dominating the box office for three weeks, The Expendables 2 still has a long way to go to catch up with The Expendables (which had grossed $85.6 million by it’s third week in theaters).
Related: The Expendables 2 Movie Review
4. ‘The Bourne Legacy’
The Bourne franchise’s fourth film grossed another $9.3 million this past four-day weekend, which was the same amount it grossed last weekend (although that was only a three-day weekend). After about a month at the box office, The Bourne Legacy has a total domestic box office gross of $98.3 million. Compare that to The Bourne Identity‘s $89 million, The Bourne Supremacy‘s $139.7 million, and The Bourne Ultimatum‘s $185.3 million from the same box office period. It still looks like reaching $121.7 million lifetime gross of The Bourne Identity is not going to happen, which is pretty disappointing for Universal Pictures.
Related: The Bourne Legacy Movie Review
5. ‘ParaNorman’
The stop-motion animated film ParaNorman too added $9 million in it’s third week, bringing the film’s total domestic gross to $40.4 million so far. The amount the film grossed this past week was enough to bump up to fifth place out of the highest grossing stop-motion animated films of all time. ParaNorman is now about $13 million behind Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride (in fourth place with $53.4 million), and $34.9 million behind Focus’s other stop-motion animated feature, Coraline (currently in second place with $75.3 million). It will be interesting to see how the numbers compare when another horror-themed stop-motion animated picture, Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, is released October 5th.
Related: ParaNorman Movie Review
Dis-Honorable Mention – Oogieloves in The BIG Balloon Adventure
I know we usually stick to the top five at the box office, but I had to bring this up. Oogieloves in The BIG Balloon Adventure just sounds like the type of movie that would tank at the box office, but I don’t think anyone expected the film to tank as bad as it did. Oogieloves set the record for the worst debut ever for a film opening in more than 2,000 theaters. Earning only $610,057 over the four-day weekend, the film made an average of $282 per theater. Box Office Mojo puts that into perspective for us: “If each location played Oogieloves five times a day on one screen at an average ticket price of $7, that would translate to fewer than two people per showing.” Yikes. If you care to see the trailer, here it is, but I wouldn’t blame you if you skipped it.
Next Week’s Releases
This week’s box office numbers were better than last week’s, but will next week’s releases do even better? Can The Words make a box office spike? Will The Cold Light of Day see the sweet victory of the number one spot? Will there be a spot in the top five for the limited release of Bachelorette?
Box Office Report: August 31st – September 3rd
1. The Possession – $21.1 million
2. Lawless – $12.9 million
3. The Expendables 2 – $11.5 million
4. The Bourne Legacy – $9.3 million
5. ParaNorman – $9 million
6. The Odd Life of Timothy Green – $8.6 million
7. The Dark Knight Rises – $8 million
8. 2016 Obama’s America – $7.5 million
9. The Campaign – $7.2 million
10. Hope Springs – $6.1 million
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