Possession remains No. 1 at weak box office

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Possession occupied the top spot at a nearly comatose box office.

The fright flick with Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Dean Morgan playing the parents of a girl possessed by a demon earned US$9.5 million (S$11.73 million) in its second outing, the lowest grossing weekend for the box office this year and one of the worst weekends at the box office in a decade. It marked the first time since 2008 that no film managed to crack the US$10 million mark.

The weekend after the Labour Day holiday is typically the slowest of the year, but this weekend's grosses were down 20 per cent over last year when Contagion opened in first place with US$22.4 million. Total box office revenues are estimated at US$67 million, which would make this the worst weekend at the box office since the weekend after the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when revenues were US$59.7 million.

"There just wasn't a strong opener," said Mr Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.