Weekend Box Office: Presidential Campaign Hits the Movie Screens

This waning summer weekend at the North American box office was so weak that a fear-mongering documentary warning about the dire consequences of a second term for President Obama made it to #8 on the Top Ten. I doubt “2016: Obama’s America” is going to sway many voters, but it’s an indication of the heated and inflammatory rhetoric that’s to come in these final weeks of the presidential race. As far as going to the movies is concerned, I’d rather stick with the campaign antics of Will Ferrell and Zach Galafianakis! As for the three other new films on this weekend’s list, none of them even broke $7 million. With no sure-fire blockbusters on the docket until November’s final entry from “The Twilight Saga,” Hollywood movie execs must be dusting off their holiday decorations and counting the minutes until summer ends.

Falling ticket sales for “The Expendables 2” did not budge the film from the #1 position. In its second week, the testosterone-fueled action pic earned $13.5M over the three-day weekend (at 3,555 theaters). The next three films on the list also repeated their status from last week. At #2, “The Bourne Legacy” brought in $9.3M (at 3,654 theaters) while “ParaNorman,” again at #3, raked in $8.5M (at 3,455 theaters). “The Campaign,” the election-year comedy, stayed firm at #4, with $7.4M in ticket sales (at 3,302 theaters) while “The Dark Knight Rises” actually moved back up to the top half of the list, adding $7.1M (at 2,606 theaters) to its six-week domestic total of $422.1M.

Last week’s tear-jerking Disney film, “The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” moved up to #6, earning $7.1M (at 2,598 theaters). At #7, the first new release on this week’s list, Sony’s “Premium Rush” featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and an imperiled New York bike messenger, only managed to cough up $6.3M (at 2,255 theaters) while the hatchet job on the President, “2016: Obama’s America,” made it to #8, bringing in $6.2M (at only 1,091 theaters). Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones continued to charm audiences with their acting prowess in the #9 film, “Hope Springs,” which earned $6M (at 2,402 theaters) while Open Road Films’ “Hit and Run,” starring Bradley Cooper, opened at #10, with $4.6M (at 2,870 theaters).

Bumped off the list this week is a trio of remakes and sequels: “Sparkle,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days,” and “Total Recall.” And what’s up for Labor Day weekend? The powerful Prohibition-era “Lawless” starring Shia LaBoeuf and Tom Hardy as bootlegging brothers, the scary “Possession” starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick as divorced parents trying to protect their little girl from a malicious spirit, the suspenseful “The Tall Man” starring Jessica Biel as a young mother trying to locate her kidnapped child, and the raunchy but sweet “For a Good Time Call…” starring Ari Graynor and Lauren Miller as a pair of unlikely phone sex operators.