Pundits predict quiet Labor Day

This weekend’s two new major releases, The November Man and As Above, So Below, will likely do modest business over the coming three days. Instead, look for summer’s largest success, Guardians of the Galaxy, to once again lay claim to the No. 1 spot at the box office. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shouldn’t be too far behind.

Galaxy should rake in another $13 or $14 million this weekend, while the Turtles will likely enjoy an $11 to $12 million haul. The November Man, in which Pierce Brosnan makes like Liam Neeson and Kevin Costner before him, playing an aging operative roped back into the game, already opened on Wednesday. The film’s debut was a bit soft, not that mid-week openings lend themselves to fireworks: It opened at No. 5 with $862,000. For a six-day total, The November Man is facing $9 to $12 million in returns.

That’s a bit better, or should be, than As Above, So Below. The horror flick stars “Mad Men’s” Ben Feldman and is set in the catacombs of Paris. (Given the film’s poor reviews, 33 percent rotten on Rotten Tomatoes, its location may be the coolest thing about it.) Where November Man opens in 2,750 theatres, As Above, So Below will screen in 2,637 locations. Its total for the holiday weekend should work out to roughly $10 million.

The specialty box office offers a few more films of note. Life of Crime, adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel and starring Jennifer Aniston, also opens today, as does the well-reviewed Brit prison film, Starred Up.

Given the overall weak showing of this summer’s box office (despite Herculean efforts by Transformers: Age of Extinction, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, B.O.  was down 15 percent from last summer), studio execs must be pleased to see this season come to a close.