Paramount’s Paranormal Activity 3 dominated the weekend box office. Its $54 million total was more than the rest of the top ten earned combined and 33% higher than the debut of Paranormal 2 a year ago. Paranormal 3 set a new record for a September or October opening, surpassing the $50.3 million debut of Jackass 3-D last year. But the horror prequel didn’t get much help from other newcomers and the total of the top ten was down 8% versus the same weekend in 2010.
Paranormal Activity 3 is set in 1988 and features the two sisters who played major roles in the first two films in the franchise as little girls. The “found footage” Paranormal series has established itself as the dominant horror film franchise of the Halloween season displacing the “torture porn” of the Saw franchise. Paranormal Activity 3 has the advantage of solid reviews (72% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes). The younger crowd is key to a horror film's success and for PNA 3 53% of the audience was under 25, which is down from 60% for PNA 2, but then the audience for the franchise is aging somewhat, and PNA 3’s ability to attract older viewers undoubtedly helped it score a 33% gain over PNA 2.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): October 21 - 23, 2011 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | Paranormal Activity 3 | $54,020,000 | 3,321 | $16,266 | $54,020,000 | 1 |
| 2 | Real Steel | $11,319,000 | 3,412 | $3,317 | $67,226,640 | 3 |
| 3 | Footloose | $10,850,000 | 3,555 | $3,052 | $30,863,031 | 2 |
| 4 | The Three Musketeers | $8,800,000 | 3,017 | $2,917 | $8,800,000 | 1 |
| 5 | The Ides of March | $4,900,000 | 2,042 | $2,400 | $29,159,326 | 3 |
| 6 | Dolphin Tale | $4,200,000 | 2,858 | $1,470 | $64,390,675 | 5 |
| 7 | Moneyball | $4,050,000 | 2,353 | $1,721 | $63,708,894 | 5 |
| 8 | Johnny English Reborn | $3,800,000 | 1,552 | $2,448 | $3,800,000 | 1 |
| 9 | The Thing | $3,115,000 | 2,995 | $1,040 | $14,100,000 | 2 |
| 10 | 50/50 | $2,800,000 | 1,932 | $1,449 | $28,800,000 | 4 |
Will PNA 3 be able to break the $100 million barrier? It has a good chance since it will face little competition over the coming Halloween weekend, but there are obstacles. The film could manage only a poor “C+” CinemaScore, down from the “B” grade of PNA 2, so it appears that the audience didn’t find the film as beguiling as the critics did.
The other two new releases The Three Musketeers and Johnny English Reborn, both disappointed. The umpteenth screen version of Alexander Dumas’ adventure classic earned just $8.8 million, becoming the fifth film of 2011 to open in more than 3,000 theaters and still not be able to earn more than $10 million. The period adventure film failed to attract a younger crowd, only 36% of the audience for the “PG-13” film was under 25.
The British spy spoof Johnny English Reborn, which stars the rubber-faced Rowan Atkinson, earned just $3.8 million and debuted in eighth place. Fortunately for its producers, the movie has already earned enough overseas to be profitable, though an American opening that is barely a third of what the first Johnny English film earned back in 2003, has to seen as disappointing.
For the most part the holdovers did quite well. Last week’s leaders Real Steel (down 30.5%) and Footloose (down 30.3%) ended up in third and fourth place respectively. George Clooney’s political thriller Ides of March dropped just 31.1% in its third weekend and ended up in fifth, just ahead of the inspirational Dolphin Tale, which slipped just 32.6% and brought its total to $64 million in its fifth weekend. Also in its fifth weekend, baseball drama Moneyball fell just 25.8% and brought its total to $63.7 million.
The remake of The Thing suffered the largest drop in the top ten, plummeting 63.3% in its second weekend—stick a fork in this 80s remake, this alien vegetable is way overcooked already.