Box Office Falls Flat With One of Worst Weekends in Decades

Hollywood suffered one of the worst box office weekends in the last decade, as a lack of strong movies has slowed movie attendance momentum, an analyst said Sunday.

"It was the lowest grossing overall weekend of the year," said Paul Dergerabedian, who keeps track of studio revenue reports for Hollywood.com. Only about $66 million was spent at box offices this weekend, a very low figure, he said.

"Clearly there was not a lot of momentum coming out of Labor Day due to a rather slow end of the summer season," he said.

"The Possession" was the number one movie at the North American box offices for the second straight week, according to studio estimates.

The Lionsgate release is on track to deal $9.5 million in tickets this weekend, for a two-week running gross of $33.3 million, according to data gathered by Hollywood.com.

"Lawless" is holding down the second spot for the second week, with an estimated $6 million weekend and $23.5 million two-week total.

"The Words" debuted in third place with a $5 million show.

Dergerabedian noted that "one of the bright spots for the weekend" was a one-week-only re-release of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" on IMAX screens, which was estimated to pull in $1.8 million this weekend.

Rounding out the 10 most popular films this weekend, according to studio estimates for the U.S. and Canada gathered by Hollywood.com, were "The Expendables 2" ($4.8 million), "The Bourne Legacy" ($4 million), "ParaNorman" ($3.8 million), "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" ($3.7 million), "The Campaign" ($3.5 million), "The Dark Knight Rises" ($3.3 million) and "2016 Obama's America" ($3.2 million).

For a weekend guide of what's playing at the movies in Cerritos-Artesia on Sept. 8 & 9, .

- City News Service contributed to this report.