Scary Weekend Records

Weekend Recap: 8/31-9/2/2012

While the biggest news of the holiday weekend should have been my birthday, three of the films at the box office got a bit more attention; two for setting a record to be proud of and one for setting one of the most embarrassing records imaginable (for movies at least).

In first place during what is typically a pretty slow weekend was The Possession (review coming soon), which scared up $17.7 million over its first three days and an estimated $3.6 million on Labor Day. With a four-day total of $21.3 million, The Possession has earned the title of being the second highest grossing Labor Day weekend movie ever, behind only Rob Zombie's 2007 Halloween remake ($30.6 million).

Since the embarrassing film of the weekend didn't even make it into the Top Ten, I'll go ahead and mention it now. The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure officially had the worst opening weekend of all time for a film in wide release. With a weekend total of less than $450 thousand, Oogieloves had a per-theater average of $207. Ouch.

Lawless (review here), which opened on Wednesday, took second place with $13 million for a six-day total of $15.1 million. The Expendables 2 (review here) grossed $11.2 million for third place, while The Bourne Legacy (review here) took in $9.4 million in fourth.

ParaNorman and The Odd Life of Timothy Green each earned over $8 million for fifth and sixth place, respectively. In seventh, eighth, and ninth place were The Dark Knight Rises (review here), 2016: Obama's America, and The Campaign, which each brought in over $7 million. TDKR was the other record-setting film of the weekend, becoming one of 13 films to have exceeded $1 billion dollars worldwide.

Hope Springs (review here) rounded out the Top Ten with $6 million and in limited release, For a Good Time, Call... grossed $141 from 23 theaters for a per-venue average of $6,130.

Here's a snapshot of the Top Ten Weekend Films domestically:

#	Title	Weekend Gross	Theater Average	Total Gross
1	The Possession	$21.3 million	$7,563	$21.3 million
2	Lawless	$13 million	$4,501	$15.1 million
3	The Expendables 2	$11.2 million	$3,359	$68.6 million
4	The Bourne Legacy	$9.4 million	$3,004	$98.4 million
5	ParaNorman	$8.9 million	$2,884	$40.3 million
6	The Odd Life of Timothy Green	$8.5 million	$3,225	$38.4 million
7	The Dark Knight Rises	$7.9 million	$3,612	$433.2 million
8	2016	$7.1 million	$4,064	$20.3 million
9	The Campaign	$7 million	$2,380	$74.6 million
10	Hope Springs	$6 million	$2,458	$52.1 million