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Kevin James comedy "Here Comes the Boom" is soft; "Atlas Shrugged: Part 2" hasn't yet galvanized conservative moviegoers. Summit Entertainment's microbudgeted horror pic Sinister stole the show at the Friday box office, grossing $7.5 million and beating holdover Taken 2 and Ben Affleck's new political thriller Argo.

...That seems to be the case with “The Possession,” yet another film about an evil spirit that tries to possess its host. And it’s based on a true story. You know, like how “The Return of the Living Dead” is based on real events. Yeah, sure. With a 35% score on Rotten Tomatoes, critics aren’t buying it. That is, unless you’re Roger Ebert, who gave it 3.5 stars.

Action extravaganza The Expendables easily topped the Friday box office, but overall moviegoing remained on the softer side as the sequel found itself trailing the original 2010 film. Expendables 2, from Lionsgate and Millennium Films, grossed $10.5 million for a projected weekend opening in the $27 million to $28 million range. On the same weekend two years ago, Expendables grossed $13.3 million on its first Friday for a $34.8 million opening.

Universal lowers its weekend projection for "The Bourne Legacy" after latenight traffic comes to a standstill, a common phenomenon since the July 20 Aurora theater shooting. Universal's The Bourne Legacy is safely in the No. 1 position at the domestic box office, opening to $14 million on Friday for a weekend debut in the $41 million range. Bourne Legacy is a key test for the studio as it tries to reboot one of its marquee franchises without Matt Damon. This go around, Jeremy Renner is the leading man.

After a tragic start to its domestic run, Warner Bros.' "The Dark Knight Rises" is still poised for boffo biz at the domestic box office, with early estimates putting the Batman sequel at $75 million to 80 million for Friday alone... Warner Bros. announced on Friday that it would not report box office figures for "The Dark Knight Rises" over the weekend out of respect for the victims of the shooting in Aurora, Colo., which left 12 people dead after a lone gunman opened fire on the packed theater at a Thursday midnight screening. It was the second Batpic in a row to open under tragic circumstances; Heath Ledger's death in January 2008 came before his Oscar-winning turn as The Joker in that year's July release, "The Dark Knight."

Smashing records and setting off early holiday fireworks, Seth MacFarlane's Ted debuted to a massive $54.1 million at the domestic box office -- the best showing ever for an original R-rated comedy. It wasn't the only R-rated winner of the weekend. Steven Soderbergh's male striptease dramedy Magic Mike likewise overperformed in a big way, grossing $39.2 million. It's the first time in history that two R-rated movies opened north of $20 million on the same weekend.

"Ted" earns $20.2 million, while "Magic Mike" earns $19.4 million; Tyler Perry's "Madea's Witness Protection" does good business with $10.3 million. The box office surged Friday as Ted and Magic Mike scored some of the best numbers ever for the R-rated comedy genre. Tyler Perry's more tame Madea's Witness Protection also did good business.

Pixar’s “Brave” did $24.5M on Friday and expected to gross around $70M this weekend, better than the $60M box office analysts were projecting. According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, it’s the third highest opening day box office for Pixar behind “Toy Story 3” ($41M) and “Cars 2” ($25.7M).

In my “Battleship” article, I wrote that a Universal exec or two will probably have to resign if “Snow White and The Hunstman” didn’t perform up to expectations because of how poorly the ultra expensive “Battleship” have done at the box office recently.

But to come out ahead, Sony's 3D tentpole will need plenty of kids and families to turn out over the long Memorial Day weekend; horror pic "Chernobyl Diaries" opens in the No. 4 spot with $3.5 milllion, Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom" soars at the specialty box office.read more