Mark Wahlberg remained invincible at the box office over the long Labor Day weekend.
Disney’s “Invincible,” with Wahlberg as a pro football rookie who makes the team in open tryouts, was the No. 1 movie for the second straight weekend, taking in $15.2 million from Friday through Monday, according to studio estimates. The movie lifted its 11-day total to $37.8 million.
Lionsgate’s action tale “Crank,” with Jason Statham as a hitman out for revenge while racing to find an antidote after he’s poisoned, opened at No. 2 with $13 million.
Nicolas Cage’s “The Wicker Man,” a Warner Bros. remake of a 1973 thriller about a cop tracking a missing child on an eerie island, took in $11.7 million to debut in third place.
The weekend’s other new wide release, Sony’s basketball tale “Crossover,” opened outside the top 10 with $4.5 million.
Two acclaimed films continued to expand to more theaters and scored again with audiences. Fox Searchlight’s road-trip comedy “Little Miss Sunshine,” starring Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Steve Carell, was No. 4 with $9.7 million.
Yari Film Group’s “The Illusionist,” starring Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti in a drama about a mysterious magician in early 1900s Vienna, expanded into wide release and broke into the top 10 with $8 million.
After gradually rolling out following debuts in a handful of theaters, the two films maintained the best per-theater averages among the top 10 movies. Playing in 1,602 locations, “Little Miss Sunshine” averaged $6,071 per cinema, while “The Illusionist” averaged $8,261 in 971 theaters.
In limited release, IFC Films’ documentary “This Film Is Not Yet Rated” opened strongly with $41,664 in two theaters for a $20,832 average. The film, a harsh critique of Hollywood’s movie ratings system, expands to more theaters through September.
Hollywood closed the summer with a solid Labor Day weekend, typically a slow time at movie theaters as students prepare to head back to school and families squeeze in last-minute barbecues and other outdoor activities. The top 12 movies took in $98.7 million, up slightly from the same weekend last year.
After domestic revenues went into a tailspin in 2005, Hollywood has rebounded with a sturdy year, with movie attendance rising about 3 percent compared to last summer.
“This was a summer that I think reflected the fact that people still want to go to the movies,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. “We didn’t break any records, but the box office is alive and well.”