1. The Possession – $17.7 million three-day / $21.3 million four-day, Movies report.
2. Lawless – $10.0 / $13.0 million
3. The Expendables 2 – $8.9 / $11.2 million
4. The Bourne Legacy – $7.3 / $9.3 million
5. Paranorman – $6.5 / $8.8 million
6. The Odd Life of Timothy Green – $6.2 / $8.5 million
7. The Dark Knight Rises – $6.1 / $7.9 million
8. 2016: Obama’s America – $5.5 / $7.08 million
9. The Campaign – $5.6 / $7.02 million
10. Hope Springs – $4.7 / $6.0 million

The Big Stories
Best top 10 since 2007, plus The Dark Knight Rises tops The Dark Knight and The Avengers hits $1.5 billion worldwide
The top 10 films registered the best cumulative total since 2007′s $114 million, when Rob Zombie’s regrettable Halloween remake ruled the weekend with over $30 million alone. Lawless’ second-place finish gave the Weinstein Co. the sixth best opening in its history (in between Hoodwinked and Derailed.) Universal’s The Bourne Legacy is on the verge of hitting $100 million stateside, but still needs at least another $100 worldwide to recoup its budget.
On The Dark Knight Rises watch, the film became the 13th film in history to hit the billion-dollar mark worldwide, pushing it past The Dark Knight’s total gross of $1.003 billion with a total (so far) of $1.005 billion (via THR). Make of that what you will. By mid-week it will have passed E.T., and by next weekend will have passed Shrek 2 to become the seventh highest-grossing domestic film in history. Meanwhile, The Avengers has just crossed $1.5 billion. It still has quite a bit between itself and Titanic, which topped off at $2.185 million.
Anti-Obama doc close to becoming the year’s most successful documentary
A generic Jewish ghost that likes to eat and a chopped-up, unfocused picture about gangsters selling drinks were enough to draw people into theaters for the holiday weekend. No Olympics, no blaming Hurricane Isaac — it was just people of all variations of families and political refugees seeking shelter from the perceived anti-colonial mentality of Barack Obama and the dreams of his father. Dinesh D’Souza has probably already made the leap that his questionable and controversial documentary will swing the vote for Mitt Romney once the anti-Obama choir are done making it the most successful documentary of 2012. By Monday it will only be about $9 million away from setting that mark over Chimpanzee. How perfect.
Labor Day weekend may help The Possession break a record
That is a word one might be inclined to use for this weekend’s box office, too. Labor Day weekend openers have averaged $14.4 million since 2000, and that’s over the four-day weekend. Lions Gate, securing their third number-one finisher in a row and seventh of the year, opened The Possession to $17.7 million in just three. Estimates suggest it could earn up to $22 million with the extra day, which would make the Sam Raimi-produced read more