The summer movie season is officially over and September looks bleak with no major movies to look forward to.  The movies that came out on top did so with very little competition and their grosses pale in comparison to other hits from earlier in the year.  Of the two new movies in the top five, startlingly it was the older-skewing drama ‘A Walk In The Woods’ starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte that came out on top over the action-packed ‘The Transporter: Refueled’, which only managed a lethargic fifth place ranking.

More after the numbers:

  1. War Room (Sony) — $9.4 million
  2. Straight Outta Compton (Universal) — $8.8 million
  3. A Walk In The Woods (Broad Green Pictures) — $8.3 million
  4. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (Paramount) — $7.2 million
  5. The Transporter: Refueled (EuropaCorp) — $7.1 million

Dark  horse ‘War Room’ actually managed to dethrone ‘Straight Outta Compton’ after three weeks at #1.  With just a $3M budget, ‘War Room’ has easily blown away expectations, raking in $24.7M so far.  Meanwhile, ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’ continues to benefit from being the only big-budget blockbuster still showing in wide release.

Robert Redford’s mature dramedy ‘A Walk In The Woods’ based on the autobiography of writer Bill Bryson drew the older male crowd.  (Of course, Hollywood’s definition of “older” is anyone over 25!)  Still, it was a surprisingly strong showing against ‘The Transporter: Reloaded’ which actually had the highest grosses of any of the other top five movies on Friday.  But the speed fever died as the reboot shifted to the fifth spot over the course of the entire weekend.  More impressive for ‘A Walk In The Woods’, it managed this coup only playing on half the screens of ‘The Transporter’.

On the optimistic side,’The Transporter’ flicks do better overseas, so despite a rather weak showing in the US, this film may do well enough in the long run to keep the franchise speeding along.  Or at least coasting.

This dreadful movie month trudges on next week with the most notable release being M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Visit’ a movie that is being released by Universal Studios, but that Shyamalan had to finance himself, if that tells you anything.  Another possible contender is the thriller ‘The Perfect Guy’ starring noted African American actors Morris Chestnut, Sanaa Lathan and Michael Ealy.  Just as the under-served Christian market turned out to support ‘War Room’, the African American demographic, which is similarly not heavily catered-to, has a tendency to do the same.

Check back next week for the latest figures.

Sources: Fortune and Screen Crush