As Predicted by The Number of Facebook Likes, "The Possession" Tops The Box Office with $6M
Never underestimate horror films. They have a reliable group of fans who’ll rush out to the theaters as long as they deliver the scares. Most of them might not be good movies, but as long as the horror goods are there, the fans don’t care.
That seems to be the case with “The Possession,” yet another film about an evil spirit that tries to possess its host. And it’s based on a true story. You know, like how “The Return of the Living Dead” is based on real events. Yeah, sure. With a 35% score on Rotten Tomatoes, critics aren’t buying it. That is, unless you’re Roger Ebert, who gave it 3.5 stars.
It doesn’t matter. “The Possession,” which stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick, scared up $6M at the box office on Friday, unseating “The Expendables 2” as the top film this weekend. For the four day Labor Day weekend, it could take in between $20M to $24M - probably on the lower end since horror films tend to be front-loaded.
I’m not surprised because, of all of the new wide releases, “The Possession” has, by far, the most Facebook Likes. 210,091 compared to 68,243 for “Lawless” and a measly 2,631 for “The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure.”
Prior to their releases, “The Possession” was adding 7,000 to 11,000 Likes per day, compared to 500 to 600 for “Lawless” and 50 to 60 for “The Oogieloves.”
“Lawless,” a Prohibition film starring Shia Labeouf, Tom Hardy, and Guy Pearce, did an ok $2.8M. It’ll take in between $10 to $12M for the long weekend. With 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s easily the best-reviewed of the three wide releases.
No friday figure was available for the kiddy film “The Oogieloves” on BoxOfficeMojo.com, but it was only able to draw in a total of $226K in ticket sales for Wednesday and Thursday.
I was expecting “Lawless” to give “The Possession” more of a fight for box office supremacy this weekend, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.
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About Senh Duong
Senh created and operated Rotten Tomatoes out of his apartment at one point before coming together with friends to turn it into a real company. He's back to doing what he loves with Movies With Butter.
