Weekend Box Office: ‘Saw’ Gets Spooked By Some ‘Paranormal Activity’

When it comes to horror,  for the last several years October has been monopolized by the persistent and prolific offerings of a one Saw series. Jigsaw might be smarting a bit this Monday, because he was decidedly trounced by “the little demon that could,” otherwise known as Paranormal Activity.

Based on early estimates from Box Office Mojo,  Paranormal Activity finally claimed the top spot at the box office in its fifth week of release.  This makes it only the second movie this decade to do so after that many weeks in release, the other being Gran Torrino (2008).   Scaring up another $22M, the film played on 1,956 screens and brought its cumulative total up to $62.4M.

Despite playing on over 1,000 more screens than Paranormal, Saw VI brought in only $14.8M for second place.  This is the worst opening weekend for the franchise since the original Saw.

Where the Wild Things Are had a fairly steep dropoff of 55.9% from its opening week, which indicates few repeat attendees, and less than stellar word of mouth.  Still, it made $14.4 bringing its cumulative total to $53.9M for its first two weeks.

Compare that to Law Abiding Citizen, which only dropped 39% from last weekend, and made $12.7M.

Three-week holdover Couple’s Retreat also enjoyed a modest drop (37%) and looks like it is well on its way to grossing $100M during its run.

It was a pretty dismal weekend for new entries Cirque du Freak:  The Vampire’s Assistant ($6.3M, #8) and Astro Boy ($7M, #6).  Hilary Swank’s biopic Amelia didn’t even break the top ten this week.  It made a paltry $4M on 818 screens. Less than stellar reviews seemed to have kept its demographic at home.

The Stepfather ($6.5M, #7);  Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs ($5.6M, #9) and Zombieland ($4.3M, #10) completed the top ten.

Overall, it was a slow week, with box office numbers down 9% from last year, according to Hollywood.com.