A late-summer horror tale took possession of the weekend box office as Hollywood quietly wound down a busy season that turned out to be not so busy.

"The Possession" debuted as the No. 1 movie with $21.3 million over the four-day Labor Day weekend, according to studio estimates. The Lionsgate fright flick stars Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as parents of a girl possessed by a demon.

Opening in second-place with $13 million was the Weinstein Co. bootlegging drama "Lawless," with Shia LaBeouf and Guy Pearce in a story of moonshiners pursued by a corrupt lawman during Prohibition.