Weekend Box Office Report: September 14-16, 2012

Photo Credit: Sony Pictures

Resident Evil: Retribution (Sony/Screen Gems), the latest entry in the ongoing series based on a popular video game, ruled the weekend box office, earning more than $21.0 million over the three day frame. The Milla Jovovich thriller sailed past the re-release of Disney's Finding Nemo 3D, which swam into second place with $16.7 million. Rounding out the top five are The Possession (Lionsgate), with just under $6.0 million, Lawless (Weinstein Company), with just over $4.0 million, and a virtual tie between The Expendables 2 (Lionsgate) and ParaNorman (Focus), both with slightly more than $3.0 million. I wonder if The Possession and ParaNorman will be held over for a few more weeks, as Halloween approaches? That would be a more appropriate time to catch both films.

The new film Last Ounce of Courage (Rocky Mountain Pictures) earned a paltry $1.8 million, which was not enough for a top ten debut. While the film is playing in less than half the theaters as Resident Evil: Retribution, that showing is still very poor. Speaking of poor, after ten days, The Words (CBS Films), starring Bradley Cooper, is a huge flop, having earned less than $10 million to date. There is some positive news to report however, the new film The Master (The Weinstein Company), starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, earned more than $700,000 in just five theaters. Now that is masterful indeed.

Here are the Top Ten Weekend Films (numbers are in millions):

1. Resident Evil: Retribution - $21.1

2. Finding Nemo 3D - $16.7

3. The Possession - $5.8

4. Lawless - $4.3

5. The Expendables 2 - $3.1

6. ParaNorman - $3.1

7. The Words - $2.9

8. The Bourne Legacy - $2.9

9. The Odd Life of Timothy Green - $2.6

10. The Campaign - $2.4