Demon-Crazed "Possession" Grabs #1 Spot Over Slow Weekend

Opening the demon-infested box in The Possession

Just like life, there are good weeks and bad weeks at the box office.

Sometimes there are really awesome weeks, like when The Avengers was released.

Most weeks see films on the Top Ten list grossing about $2 to $40 million-ish.

And then there are days like last weekend, when the box office was practically silent.

The Star Tribune called last weekend "the lowest grossing weekend for the box office this year and one of the worst weekends at the box office in 10 years." I would call that a very accurate observation, especially since the number one movie this week - The Possession - only earned $9.5 million.

That's a whole lot less than the usual $30 million-ish.

Maybe people are getting really sick of exorcism movies. I don't know...

Part of the reason why the box office was so slow last weekend was because of a certain holiday called Labor Day. When most people think of Labor Day weekend, they think of grill-outs, playing games with family, maybe watching fireworks, that sort of thing. I, for one, know that when I hear "Labor Day" I don't think "let's go to the movie theater!"

Apparently a lot of other people think the same way I do.

Usually Labor Day weekend and the week afterward are very slow for movie theaters. In the number one spot last year over Labor Day weekend was Contagion, and that opened with $22.4 million.

And yet, a year later, Possession opens with only $9.5 million.

How does that work, 'cause (if you care to do the math) that's about 20% less than last year's grosses?

So that brings up the other reason why a lot of people didn't go to see a movie last weekend: there was just not much new or good or interesting playing.

If you look at the Top Ten list, all but two films started their box office run at least a week ago. Nothing that's both new and interesting is out there to grab people's attention.

But, then again, bad days happen. Next weekend will undoubtably be more interesting. And financial consultants are betting that when The Hobbit, Part 1 releases in December, it'll boost film profits big time.

And I totally agree with them. =)


Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday September 7th through Sunday September 9th at U.S. and Canadian theaters (courtesy of the Star Tribune):

1. The Possession - $9.5 million
2. Lawless - $6 million
3. The Words - $5 million
4. The Expendables 2 - $4.7 million
5. The Bourne Legacy - $4 million
6. ParaNorman - $3.8 million
7. The Odd Life of Timothy Green - $3.6 million
8. The Campaign - $3.5 million
9. The Dark Knight Rises - $3.3 million
10. 2016: Obama's America - $3.3 million




 - Edessa, signing off