Box office report: 'The Possession' leads the worst weekend in over a decade

CNN ^ | 09/11/2012 | Grady Smith

[SeekAndFind]

Chances are, you weren't at the movies this weekend. Not a single film at the box office reached $10 million. Call it the curse of "The Oogieloves."

The Top 12 films grossed a depressingly low $51.9 million — the worst Top 12 total since Sept. 5-7, 2008, when Nicolas Cage flop Bangkok Dangerous led the chart with $7.7 million and the Top 12 films earned $50.3 million. Even more distressingly, this weekend marked the lowest cumulative ticket sales in over a decade. The last frame to notch worse overall ticket sales was Sept. 21-23, 2001 — two weekends after the 9/11 attacks — when only one new wide release entered theaters: Mariah Carey's infamous bomb Glitter. (Keep in mind, as final weekend results come in on Monday, things could change. Stay tuned.)

Lionsgate's $14 million horror entry The Possession once again topped the chart with $9.5 million. The film, which earned a "B" CinemaScore grade last week, enjoyed a better than expected hold (it dropped 46 percent) — especially since its debut results were inflated by it bowing on a holiday weekend. After ten days, The Possession has earned $33.3 million, and by the end of its run, it may possess close to $50 million total.

If you're not a fan of demonic tales like The Possession, prepare yourself to keep seeing them for a long while at the box office. The "Based on a True Story" conceit, which was effectively used in marketing for The Possession (and similar titles like The Devil Inside), still hasn't worn out its welcome with American audiences, and horror tales are so cheap to make that they don't need gargantuan grosses to provide solid financial returns for their studios.

[SeekAndFind]

Matisyahu, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Natasha Calis and Kyra Sedgwick mix it up in"The Possession."

[txrefugee]

Could Americans finally be sick of the garbage Follywood has been foisting on us for decades?

[GeronL]

I saw a review that said POSESSION is a horrible movie but so are all the other ones.

[GeronL]

“Based on a true story” is usually so thinly related to something that really happened to be laughable. “Inspired by a true story” is basically they saw a headline and said “Lets make a movie like that”... such as whales stuck in the ice....

[LaserJock]

No kidding. You might as well claim and Pixar’s Ice Age is inspired by a true story.

[Doctor 2Brains]

Is this movie about a hurricane? (See the pic)

[Doctor 2Brains]

Definitely! As proof of this, I submit to you the success of Honey Boo Boo and Breaking Amish.

[GeronL]

"Based on a True Story" does seem to attract some audience though. Sadly.

[Sans-Culotte]

My wife and I sat through several trailers when we went to see 2016. Nothing looked compelling. New movies do nothing for me, and I'm a movie buff. The big news in movies to me is the release next month of Universal's Alfred Hitchcock Collection and Universal's Monsters Collection on Blu-ray. That, and the Blu-ray of Lawrence of Arabia which is en route from the UK. New movies pretty much suck.

[jeffc]

Call me old-fashioned. call me a sexist, but I want to see good, old tough-guy movies without the tough chicks! I understand they need to make those movies to get more females into the theaters and to help women feel better about themselves (those that need that - real women don't). I'm tired of seeing some "tough" little girl beat the snot out of a guy twice her size and weight.

Flame on!

[dfwgator]

I agree, it’s the “Hunger Games Syndrome”.

You simply cannot make a movie with all-male heroes anymore.

[manic4organic]

2016: Obama’s America is now in more than 2,000 theaters and has grossed $26,115,717 to date. See it if you haven’t, if only to piss off liberals.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: 2016: Obama’s America is now in more than 2,000 theaters and has grossed $26,115,717 to date.

I read that it only cost about $10 Million to make, advertise and promote this documentary.

See here:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bam_bash_film_izzling_at_box_FaLyuRgcGRejyjai8phbNI

That means the film is on track to make over 3 times its production cost ( at least ).

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-— That means the film is on track to make over 3 times its production cost -—

Not to mention the revenues from the Dinesh D’Souza plush toys. ;-)

[Disambiguator]

Pixar’s Ice Age

I don't think the "Ice Age" franchise came from Pixar.

[LaserJock]

Oops, I stand corrected then. I tend to equate funny computer animated films with Pixar the same way I used to equate high quality animated features with Disney.

[Tuanedge]

There’s not only a tough chick myth, there’s also a tough metrosexual man myth. In addition to 95lb supermodels deftly kicking linesmen across the room, media also brainwashes pencil necked prettyboys into thinking there is some movie magic that makes muscular behemoths scatter like ninepins before the mincing dance like moves of male model types with perfectly plucked eyebrows.

I assure you, that in real life this is not the case.

[STYRO]

The newest martial art: ‘waif-fu’. Enables the tiniest female actress to totally kick a$$ on the big guys.