Box Office Update: Possession Takes Hold

Horror pic The Possession is scaring up good business for the long Labor Day weekend as Summer '12 draws to a close. John Hillcoat's period crime drama Lawless is poised to take the #2 spot...The Oogieloves movie clunks along.

Pamela McClintock of THR:

Horror pic The Possession -- inspired by films including The Exorcist -- is scaring up good business at the domestic box offfice, where it's poised to capture one of the top Labor Day openings of all time.

The Sam Raimi-produced pic topped the three-day holiday box office with an estimated $17.7 million. Lionsgate is estimating a $21.3 million four-day gross (companies will report full weekend numbers Monday morning).

Halloween is the top Labor Day opener of all time, opening to $30.6 million in 2007; Transporter 2 is No. 2, grossing $20.1 million in 2005.

Possession, starring Kyra Sedgwick, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Natasha Calis, cost in the low- to mid-teens to produce and was directed by Ole Bornedal.

The PG-13 film received a B CinemaScore and played heavily to girls and younger women, whom Lionsgate targeted. Females made up 59 percent of the audience, while 54 percent of those buying tickets were under the age of 25. The film also is over-indexing in Hispanic Catholic markets.

Overall Labor Day revenues will end up virtually on par with last year, thanks to the strength of moviegoing.

Between Possession and holdovers The Expendables 2, Lionsgate titles claim 26 percent of the holiday marketplace.

John Hillcoat's Prohibition-era drama Lawless, which opened Wednesday, is holding safely at No. 2, grossing $9.8 million for the three-day weekend. Projections show the film finishing Labor Day weekend with a solid six-day opening in the $14.5 million to $15 million range.

Lawless, from The Weinstein Co., stars Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Guy Pearce and Mia Wasikowska.

Anti-Barack Obama documentar 2016: Obama's America should finish the Labor Day holiday with a domestic total of roughly $20 million, the fifth best showing for a political doc.

Kids entry The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, opening Wednesday, continues to fare dismally. The independently financed film should finish the holiday weekend with a six-day debut of roughly $700,000 from 2,160 theaters -- the second worst debut of all time for a pic opening in that number of theaters.

I will be back tomorrow with with the final weekend totals...