The micro-budgeted horror film Paranormal Activity trounced Saw VI in the battle for pre-Halloween box office supremacy.  After two weeks of midnight showings and just 17 days of semi-wide release Paramount’s Paranormal Activity ($22 million) trounced Saw VI ($14.8 million) despite being on one third fewer screens.  Two films with comic book connections, Astro Boy ($7 million) and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant ($6.3 million), debuted poorly.  Overall the box office was down 10% from last year when High School Musical 3 opened with $42 million.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): October 23-25, 2009

In spite of its shaky cinema verite camerawork, Paranormal Activity is an old fashioned horror movie that relies on suspense, unseen things that go bump in the night, and the viewer’s imagination.  Having earned $62.5 million so far, Paranormal has a good chance to make the $100 million mark, in part because it has managed to attract a solid percentage of female viewers.

In contrast to the unprecedented success of Paranormal Activity, which was made for a mere $11,500, the debut of Saw VI has to rate as a flop in terms of the successful torture porn franchise.  Saw VI earned less than 50% of the debut totals of its two most recent franchise predecessors.  Don’t be surprised if Saw VI’s second place finish fails to hold up when the final numbers are announced on Monday. It is a mere $600,000 in front of last week’s top film, Where the Wild Things Are, and Lionsgate’s total includes a pretty optimistic projection for the Sunday shows.  Although many would wish that this would mark the end of the savage Saw franchise, look for a rebound from Saw VII, which is being filmed in 3D.

In spite of opening in more than 3,000 theaters and a substantial TV advertising campaign, Imagi Entertainment’s Astro Boy managed to generate only a poor $2,328 per theater average.  Astro Boy did face strong competition for the youth audience from Where the Wild Things Are, which dropped 56%, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which remained in the top 10 during its sixth weekend of release.  Still there is no disguising the disappointment that the Hong Kong-based Imagi must be experiencing.  The studio has already experienced financing problems (see “Imagi Completes Financing”).  Unless Imagi’s Astro Boy does better in other parts of the world, the studio’s ambitious slate of animated films, which includes a feature-length remake of the Gotchaman anime series, could be in serious jeopardy.

Universal’s decision to shift Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant to this pre-Halloween slot now looks like a real bonehead move.  Based on a popular series of YA novels, the Cirque du Freak movie carried a PG rating, which is not the sort of thing that appeals to an October horror audience, which has three other horror films (Paranormal Activity, Saw VI, and The Stepfather) to choose from.  Cirque du Freak might have made much more of an impact in its original Q1 release when it would have faced much less direct competition.  It really is a potentially potent property that has already been adapted into a popular manga series in Japan (published here by Yen Press).  In spite of some evocative TV ads, Cirque du Freak’s $6.34 million debut at #8 is a real disappointment and it could end up strangling a potentially strong property in the cradle.

Zombieland finished at #10 in its fourth week of release.  The zombie-themed horror comedy has now earned over $67 million, making it the top-grossing horror film of 2009 so far, a distinction it will relinquish to Paranormal Activity sometime this week. 

The comic book-based Surrogates fell to #17 and earned just $574,000.  It should finish its run with a total of about $38 million, less than half of its $80 million cost.