Typically the Labor Day weekend is not a huge boon for the box office. People seem to like to spend the pseudo last summer weekend outside at the beach or at a BBQ. So it really comes as no surprise that despite a few new films the weekly box office still sputtered to unimpressive numbers.

Leading the pack this weekend is the horror film The Possession, which was a cheaply made horror film that managed to pull in over $17 Million. The first place finish and the budget beating haul make this film an immediate success by just about any standards. It won’t light the world on fire like a Saw or Paranormal Activity, but it is a win all around for just about everyone involved.

Second place went to the Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy moonshiner film, Lawless. Despite the big names attached this film was never marketed very ambitiously and thus its $10 Million weekend is actually a pretty decent win all things considered. The film is rated R and even though it stars big name actors, it was never really being positioned as a big deal as a release.

It is weekends like this that really tempt me to just copy and paste last week’s report. The top 3 remained the same and no new movie could do better than seventh place in another mundane, ho-hum late summer weekend.

The top of the charts was once again highlighted by the under-performing Expendables 2 which brought in another $13+ Million. In retrospect, even though the film is not doing the same business of its R-Rated predecessor, taking the top spot two weeks in a row might be enough of a win to help get a third go-round green lit.

Once again The Bourne Legacy came in second, even still it is on pace to be the lowest performer of the franchise. Of course if you look at it in the wrong context that sounds bad, but when you realize all the factors working against the film it actually did about as well as any one should have reasonably expected.

Last week I said this was not going to be a big weekend, even with three new films nothing really had good Box Office potential. Even though the final tallies proved that this was indeed a lack luster weekend no film actually had a horrible haul.

The ‘big’ winner of the weekend was The Expendables 2, the sequel to the action extravaganza that dared to load as many action superstars as possible into about an hour and a half ‘splosion. The sequel was probably originally expected to do bigger business than it’s predecessor with its bigger cast and PG-13 rating.

Somewhere along the way expectations tempered and the film’s $28.7 Million take is probably close enough to expectations. Even though it is near expectations, it was still on the lower end, so at this point word of mouth has to be the saving grace for this testosterone fueled franchise.

Second place went to The Bourne Legacy which brought in just over $17 Million. Its drop was on par with the previous films in the franchise, but because the first weekend was weaker the film still lags. That said for a pretty big overhaul, the film has performed pretty well, and there is clearly life left in this series.

Scrapping into third place is the stop motion animated film ParaNorman. The supernatural animated picture hit the stop motion animated glass ceiling with a decent $14 Million which is not great, but hardly bad either. It is nice that the film is playing to some business, but it would have been nice to see the film breakout a little more.

Next weekend sees yet another ‘meh’ weekend at the Box Office, in fact we are starting to see the beginning of the end of summer doldrums where tent pole type films with little box office potential or momentum get a release and bang around for the left overs of the summer season pie.

The original Expendables film was a who’s who of classic 80s and 90s action super stars. It was a throwback film to a time when hardcore action films were made for a more hard core audience. The second film looks to follow in the original’s footsteps by amping up the nostalgic icons, but is the action going to take a step back?

Sylvester Stallone recently confirmed rumors over on Aint It Cool News that the film is aiming to earn a PG-13 rating:

Harry, the film is fantastic with Van Damme turning in an inspired performance… Our final battle is one for the ages. The PG13 rumor is true, but before your readers pass judgement,  trust me when I say this film is LARGE in every way and  delivers on every level. This movie touches on many emotions which we want to share with the broadest audience possible, BUT, fear not, this Barbeque of Grand scale Ass Bashing will not leave anyone hungry…Sly

The initial reaction people will have from this news is likely to be negative, but it is important to remember that the original film was eyeballing a PG-13 rating during it’s filming as well. Stallone has earned the trust of the movie going audience as a director and storyteller, and The Expendables 2 still has in impressive cast list. We will have to wait and see if the teen friendly rating negatively effects the final project.

Next year is shaping up to be a pretty gigantic year for movies. Between Nolan’s ultimate film in the Dark Knight saga, Peter Jackson returning to the Shire with The Hobbit, and the Marvel superfilm The Avengers. One film not on that list, but sure to please the fans is the sequel to Sylvester Stallone’s action movie love letter, The Expendables.

The new film, set to have almost twice as many famous faces in the action genre, is gearing up to have a pretty big marketing campaign behind it, as the last film grossed over $274 million worldwide. This time, we can expect to see names like Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Damme, and chinese actress Yu Nan join the cast. Here’s the synopsis.

The Expendables are back and this time it’s personal…The team is reunited when Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) enlists the Expendables to take on a seemingly simple job. The task looks like an easy paycheck for Barney and his band of old-school mercenaries. But when things go wrong and one of their own is viciously killed, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory where the odds are stacked against them.

Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time — six pounds of weapons-grade plutonium; enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that’s nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary who savagely murdered their brother. That is done the Expendables way…

For those of you going through action movie withdrawal, fear not, as Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables are coming back for a second round with an even more star-studded cast.

After the announcement yesterday that Chuck Norris and Jean Claude Van Damme would be joining the film, we have received awe- worthy news that both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis will have significantly expanded roles in the sequel.

Millennium Films has finally begun confirming which rumored stars will actually be showing up in the action-packed blockbuster, which will be directed by Simon (Con Air) West. An official cast list for The Expendables has made its way online, with the obvious returning stars Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke, who are all returning as part of Stallone’s mercenary crew.

Along with Jean Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris, Scott Adkins was also confirmed for the film.  It is rumored that these are not the only names that will pop up in the coming months.

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt take on a slew of new and recurring topics. Some of these include the recent Emmy Awards, Fantastic Four casting rumors, X-Men: First Class, Jimmy Fallon’s career and the Clash of the Titans Sequel.

They also discuss potential directors for X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2, True Blood, Mad Men, the Community Emmy commercials, the awesomeness of AMC network’s TV shows, the greatness of Joss Whedon’s Firefly and casting for The Expendables 2.

Plus, the guys made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of the innovative sci-fi show Lexx and Chris’ pick of the classic series Firefly starring Nathan Fillion and Summer Glau.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

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