Saw 3-D, the seventh, and supposedly final, film in the torture-filled horror film series dominated the box office charts on Halloween weekend with an estimated $24.2 million (including Thursday night shows). Although its debut weekend total was nowhere near the October horror film record set last week by Paranormal Activity 2, it represented a solid gain over the $14.1 million opening of the previous Saw installment.
Lionsgate refused to preview Saw 3-D for critics, and judging from the film’s execrable reviews (only 8% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), the studio made the right choice. Although critics’ opinions generally don’t matter much in this genre, expect Saw 3-D to fade quickly, especially since opening weekend audiences gave it a very mediocre “B-“ CinemaScore. Ninety-two percent of Saw 3-D’s total came from 3-D venues, and more than 57% of its audience was under 25.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): October 29 - 31, 2010 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | Saw 3D | $22,500,000 | 2,808 | $8,013 | $24,200,000 | 1 |
| 2 | Paranormal Activity 2 | $16,500,000 | 3,239 | $5,094 | $65,658,000 | 2 |
| 3 | Red | $10,811,000 | 3,349 | $3,228 | $58,905,000 | 3 |
| 4 | Jackass 3-D | $8,425,000 | 3,139 | $2,684 | $101,578,000 | 3 |
| 5 | Hereafter | $6,320,000 | 2,424 | $2,607 | $22,161,000 | 3 |
| 6 | Secretariat | $5,071,000 | 3,108 | $1,632 | $44,774,000 | 4 |
| 7 | The Social Network | $4,700,000 | 2,767 | $1,699 | $79,706,000 | 5 |
| 8 | Life as We Know It | $4,000,000 | 2,860 | $1,399 | $43,478,000 | 4 |
| 9 | The Town | $1,950,000 | 1,608 | $1,213 | $87,602,000 | 7 |
| 10 | Conviction | $1,825,000 | 565 | $3,230 | $2,378,000 | 3 |
Last week’s winner Paranormal Activity 2 fell 59%, but still brought in an estimated $16.8 million and finished in second place. A 59% drop is not all that bad for today’s front-loaded horror or action flicks, but it appears that Paranormal 2, which has earned $65.7 million in 10 days, doesn't have a prayer of matching the $107.9 million earned by the first film in the series. Still with a production cost of just $3 million Paranormal Activity 2 will be solidly profitable.
With just one new film debuting, it was strong performances by the holdovers that produced another solid frame at the box office. The top ten films earned 8% more than last year when This Is It opened with $23.2 million, and 21% more than 2008 when High School Musical 3 stayed at #1. Three holdovers kept their declines under 30% led by Summit Entertainment’s adaptation of Warren Ellis’ Red, which continued to do well with older moviegoers. Red dropped just 28.1% while earning an estimated $10.8 million, and finished in third place.
Jackass 3-D, which experienced the steepest fall in the top 10 (60.3%), still had enough box office power to pull in an estimated $8.4 million and finish in fourth place. The extra-dimensional Jackass is the first “R-rated” comedy to earn over $100 million since 2009’s It’s Complicated.
Tamara Drewe, which is based on the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, is now down to 13 theaters (from a “high” of 20) and appears to be losing steam. It will have to do its damage on disc. Doing much better in limited release is the Swedish film, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, the final film in Steig Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, which expanded to 153 theaters, and did well enough to end up at #13.
