LOS ANGELES, Sept 2, 2012 (AFP) – Horror flick “The Possession” exorcised A-list action romp “The Expendables 2″ from the top slot at the North American box office at the weekend, according to industry estimates released Sunday.

The newly-released supernatural thriller, which stars Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as divorcing parents trying to rid their daughter of an evil spirit, raked in $17.7 million, said movie tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Another new release, Depression-era Western “Lawless,” took second place in the rankings but it lagged in takings — generating $9.7 million on a slow, late summer weekend which will be followed by the Labor Day holiday on Monday.

“The Expendables 2″ and “The Bourne Legacy” fell to third and fourth places, with $8.8 million and $7.2 million in ticket sales, respectively.

“Paranorman,” an animated movie about a boy who can speak to the dead, held onto its spot just behind the two action blockbusters, earning $6.5 million in box office receipts.

And quirky fantasy-comedy “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” held steady at sixth place, bringing in $6.1 million.

In seventh was “The Dark Knight Rises,” the latest Batman film, which took in $5.9 million. The final installment in the trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan has so far raked in more than $431 million.

Political spoof “The Campaign,” meanwhile, starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, dropped to eighth place, with box office receipts of $5.4 million, while “2016: Obama’s America,” a documentary by conservative writer and commentator Dinesh D’Souza, came in ninth, with $5.1 million.

And rounding out the top 10 was Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones’s romantic comedy “Hope Springs,” with $4.7 million in ticket sales.

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