Summer started with a bang and ended with a whimper at the box-office.
After raking in huge piles of cash for The Avengers, the late season Hollywood slump continued this weekend. The new thriller The Possession took in $21.4 million over the four day holiday weekend.
Another new movie Lawless came in second with $13 million.
The Expendables 2 took third with $11.2 million, followed by The Bourne Legacy‘s $9.4 million.
The animated ParaNorman rounded out the top five with $8.8 million.
Final figures are due Tuesday, but if projections hold, Hollywood will end its summer with $4.3 billion in ticket sales, a shade below last year’s $4.4 billion. The 4% dip marks a drop in attendance of about 21.8 million tickets, Hollywood.com says.
“All in all, it’s a Labor Day to forget,” says John Hamann of Boxofficeprophets.com. “The box office is stale.”
