娱乐英语新闻:"The Possession" leads historically soft North America weekend

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- "The Possession" sat atop the North America box office chart for the second straight weekend, as Hollywood suffered one of the worst post-Labor Day weekends in the last decade.

The Lionsgate exorcism thriller is estimated to garner 9.5 million U.S. dollars this weekend which will put it on track for a 10-day domestic cumulative receipt of 33.3 million dollars.

This represented the first time that no film is strong enough to gross 10 million dollars or more since 2008. Hollywood analysts projected that this weekend will see overall revenues totaling between 65 million and 67 million dollars, which also marked the worst weekend since the immediate weekend following the 9/11 terrorist attacks 10 years ago. That weekend's receipts totaled 66. 5 million dollars.

"Lawless," John Hillcoat's prohibition-era drama, is holding down the second spot for the second week, with an estimated 6 million dollars weekend and 23.5 million dollar 10-day total.

"The Words" debuted in third place with a 5 million dollar outing, distributor CBS Films said. In the drama, Bradley Cooper plays a writer who pays the price for stealing someone else's work. The film mainly appealed to female which make up 58 percent of those who have seen it, and 63 percent was 35 years or older. Moviegoers who saw it assigned a "B" CinemaScore to it.

The week's only other wide opener, Summit Entertainment's "The Cold Light of the Day," managed to take in 1.8 million dollars. The actioner, starring Bruce Willis, Sigourney Weaver and Henry Cavill, received a "D+" CinemaScore, which means it will unlikely perform well with the audiences.

Rounding out the top five most popular films in North America this weekend are "The Expendables 2" (USD 4.8 million) and "The Bourne Legacy" (USD 4 million).