The usual suspect.
Here’s how it looks:
1. Paranormal Activity 4 (Paramount) NEW [3,412 Runs] R
Friday $15.0M, Saturday $9.3M, Weekend $30.0M
2. Argo (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,247 Runs] R
Friday $5.0M (-14%), Saturday $7.3M, Weekend $16.7M, Cume $43.3M
3. Taken 2 (Fox) Week 3 [3,489 Runs] PG13
Friday $4.2M, Saturday $5.9M, Weekend $13.3M, Cume $106.0M
4. Hotel Transylvania (Sony) Week 4 [3,384 Runs] PG
Friday $3.6M, Saturday $5.8M, Weekend $13.2M, Cume $118.7M
4. Alex Cross (Summit/Lionsgate) NEW [2,539 Runs] PG13
Friday $4.0M, Saturday $4.8M, Weekend $12.0M
[Numbers courtesy of Deadline]
This was a suspenseless weekend at the box office, as the “Paranormal Activity” franchise has proven to be amazingly durable. The best part for Paramount, though, is that although the budgets for the films have gone up since the $70,000 of the first one, they’re still tiny by Hollywood standards–the fourth film cost only $5 million. How’s this for a stat? The first three “Paranormal Activity” movies have earned $576 million worldwide, with the budget for all three totalling only $8M! That’s the kind of thing studios dream about. This fourth film opened lower than the previous two, and only got a C CinemasSore, though, so maybe there are signs of wear and tear on the gimmick. Still, the movie did well overseas, so expect at least one more.
The other big new opener, “Alex Cross,” got terrible reviews, but an A CinemaScore from audiences, which gave it a word of mouth bounce from Friday to Saturday. It still earned only $12 million, though. Nevertheless, a sequel is already in the works…
“Argo,” last week’s second place finisher, had an impressive hold for another second place. Look for that to keep hanging around the top five for a few more weeks.
Next week! We have Oscar hopeful “Cloud Atlas,” which will open in 2,000 theaters, so not the hugest release there. That’s a really difficult movie to sell. I can’t imagine how they’re going to get people to come out and see a challenging, difficult to describe movie which has had a love it/hate it response on the festival circuit. “Chasing Mavericks,” the true life surfing story starring Gerard Butler, is also getting a smaller release, 1,950 theaters. All anyone’s heard about that is that they tried really hard to make the surfing authentic; no word on how they’re selling it to non-surf fans. On a peculiar note, I watch a lot of sports, and haven’t seen one ad for it on any of those stations, which would seem to be a good fit. So I’m not sure what’s going on there. The widest releases are Halloween comedy “Fun Size” and “Silent Hill: Revelation 3D,” the latest in that horror franchise. Does every horror movie franchise include one with the tag “Revelation?”
