‘Paranormal Activity’ Wins the Box Office, Beats ‘SAW VI’
by Marc Patterson
Paranormal Activity closed the pre-Halloween weekend taking in $22 Million at the box office, up over a horror film contender SAW VI, which slid in over the family favorite Where the Wild Things Are, by a narrow margin, finishing at $14.8 Million. This comes as a shocker to many who expected the mega-hit horror franchise of Saw to own the box office for October. That honor will go to Paranormal Activity, which continues to prove its staying power by actually making more money this weekend than it did the weekend before (closing at $19.6 Mil).
Now, in the opinion of this humble reporter, Saw VI losing to Paranormal Activity really means nothing, well maybe not nothing, but it certainly means little. Don’t get me wrong, I love to see an underdog win the day. But films like Paranormal Activity don’t come along very often and are as much of an anomaly in Hollywood as the subject matter of the film. This sort of stuff just doesn’t happen all that often. While news is already circulating of a Paranormal Activity sequel we all know what will happen with that. Paranormal Activity is not franchise material.
According to a variety of sources, Paranormal Activity was purchased for a mere $300K and a nominal $10 Million was spent on prints and ad campaigns. The film has already more than broken even for Paramount. Simply put, all hype aside and personal like or dislikes aside, Paranormal Activity is now poised to not only be Paramount’s most successful film in their studio’s history, but also one of the most successful box office films of the genre’s history.
So what about Saw? Well, Jigsaw has a pretty good deal. So far reviews have been favorable towards Saw VI. Fans who didn’t go to the theater because of the wretched taste left in their mouth are starting to hear the word. Saw is back. Amongst critics and fans alike the biggest hoorah for the Saw VI is that it has returned to smart writing, and craftful filmmaking, pulling the film out of its rut, evidenced in the last two films. Scripted as a true “serial”, there’s plenty of space for the film franchise to go. It’s signed on for a part VII, in 3-D no less, and reports of a part VIII are circulating. A one trick pony like Paranormal Activity, while besting Saw in the short term, has done little to stop this studio Goliath, and I suspect that given the upcoming Halloween weekend we’ll see these two films battle it out for box office dollars once again.
In other horror related box office news, Zombieland slid from 4 down to 10, taking in $4.3 Mil this weekend, and the more fantasy than horror flick Cirque Du Freak, made a quiet debut at 8 on the box office charts with a meager $6.3 Million start.
