With many young moviegoers preparing to return to school or college during the same week, Labor Day generally produces the lowest box-office grosses of any four-day holiday of the year. This year was no exception. The Jewish-themed horror flick The Possession was able to grab first place over the four days with an estimated $21.3 million. The violent Prohibition-era saga Lawless wound up pretty bloodless with just $13 million. And in its third week, The Expendables relinquished first place and fell to third with $11.2 million for the holiday period. The rest of the lot all ended up with single-digit grosses, The Bourne Legacy taking fourth with $9.4 million (it's now less than $2 million away from crossing the $100-million mark), and the kids flick ParaNorman taking fifth with $8.8 million. Meanwhile, Disney returned The Avengers and Brave, two of its biggest hits in 2012, to the screen just ahead of their release on Home Video. Results were so-so. The Avengers earned $1.86 million at 1,705 theaters to place 13th on the list, while Brave took in $1.38 million to place 16th. And then there was The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, whose balloon popped with just $601,545 over the four days -- averaging just $278 per theater. It set a record for the worst wide opening of a movie in recent history.

04/09/2012