The weekend after Labor Day generally produces the sorriest box-office results of the year, and this weekend could set new standards for slow. Almost certainly, it will mark the first time since 2006 that not a single film will have managed to crack $10 million over the comparable weekend. The only film that stands a shot of doing so is Lionsgate's The Possession , which box-office trackers say should earn $7-10 million in its second week. Two new films, The Words , starring Bradley Cooper and Dennis Quaid and The Cold Light of Day , starring Bruce Willis and Superman-to-be Henry Cavill, are projected to earn $4-7 million. The latter film has already had its overseas release -- it opened in most areas last April -- and it tanked. Lionsgate is now not so much as releasing it domestically, but allowing it to escape, spending little on advertising and declining to show it to critics. The Words , which is receiving poor-to-fair reviews, is being released by CBS Films, is reportedly the kind one would expect to find in a handful of art houses, not in 2,801 theaters, many of which -- if audience tracking is to be believed -- are likely to be near empty.

07/09/2012