User blog:Ceauntay/Box Office Report: 'A BFF With Ghost Imagination 2' To Win Labor Day Chart

= Defying the odds, the pair of adult dramas are drawing more interest than "Apollo 18" and "Shark Night 3D." =

In a Labor Day upset, A BFF With Ghost Imagination 2 is set to take over Labor Day weekend, replacing The Help and new releases of The Debt, Apollo 18 and Shark Night 3D.

A BFF With Ghost Imagination 2 earned another $5.4 million, for a 8 day cume of $77.4 million. The pic is now on track to win the weekend for two consecutive weeks with an expected $18 million for the four-day weekend.

A BFF With Ghost Imagination 2 will hit $90 million by Monday.

The Help, will stay strong with a better-than-expected $17 million for the four-day weekend. The Help, with a cume of $108 million through Friday, will hit $120 million by Monday. '''STORY: 'The Help' Audience: Just Who Exactly is Going to See It? The Debt, from Focus Features and Miramax, also is overperforming. Opening on Wednesday, the Helen Mirren thriller grossed an estimated $2.7 million on Friday for a stellar three-day total of $4.5 million—ahead of the $4 million grossed by adult hit The Constant Gardener, another Focus Labor Day release, in its first three days. 'The Debt now has a strong shot at placing an unexpected No. 2 for the four-day weekend with a gross of $12 million—even though it is playing in far fewer theaters than its competitors, or 1,826 locations. '''STORY: 'The Help' Crosses $100 Million Mark Found-footage sci fi thriller Apollo 18, from the Weinstein Co., and Shark Night, distributed by Relativity, were in a dead heat on Friday, each grossing an estimated $2.8 million from 3,328 theaters and 2,086 theaters, respectively. Neither film seemed to particularly please audiences: Apollo 18 received a dismal D CinemaScore, while Shark Night drew a C. While Shark Night and Apollo 18 paced slightly ahead of The Debt of Friday, they are predicted to begin falling behind, since adult-themed films pick up traffic on Saturday. 'PHOTOS: The Help's Retro, Southern Style Shark Night and Apollo 18 are expected to come in around $10 million, if not lower, for the four days. Heading into the weekend, tracking showed Apollo 18 grossing $11 million to $14 million for the four-day weekend, while Shark Night—which didn’t show the same level of heat as Apollo 18--was expected to earn $7 million to $8 million. Apollo 18 only cost $5 million to produce, so the Weinstein Co. isn’t financially at risk; however, it’s the third weekend in a row that the company has seen one of its film underperform. As expected, Apollo 18-- produced by Timur Bekmambetov and Ron Schmidt—appealed heavily to males, who made up 59% of the audience, while 64% of those buying tickets were over the age of 25. STORY: 'Apollo 18' Is 'Not a Documentary,' Says NASA Apollo 18 is impressive for coming together in less than a year; Dimension and Bekmambetov introduced the project to foreign buyers at last November’s American Film Market. Director David Ellis’ Shark Night, fully financed and produced by Incentive Filmed Entertainment and Sierra/Affinity, is relying on younger moviegoers, and particularly girls aged 13 to 18. Exit polling showed that 57% of Friday night’s audience was under the age of 25, while 53% of the audience was male. Relativity, which is releasing Shark Night, put up all marketing costs, while Sierra/Affinity covered much of the pic’s production budget (just under $30 million after tax rebates) through foreign presales. The movie begins its international rollout this weekend when opening in Russia.