Weekend Box-Office: October 22-24, 2010

WEEKEND BOX-OFFICE

Paranormal
Activity 2 leads the way..

The original PARANORMAL
ACTIVITY was released last year under an umbrella of mystery and a
budget of close to $15,000 and went on to gross over $107M and
lead directly to its sequel one year later. The studio behind the
film decided to keep things extremely secretive this time around
as well (although its budget was closer to $3M this time around)
and release it without frills (i.e. no 3D) and audiences seemed
willing to ride along for a second year in a row as PARANORMAL
ACTIVITY 2 crushed all competition this weekend with a grand $41M
opening. The original film had opened with $20M last year.

Despite our two critics not
diggin’ the film at all (read Chris Bumbray’s review HERE
and the Arrow’s review HERE),
it seems as thought most critics enjoyed it (it’s scoring 67% on Rotten
Tomatoes) and most of our readers as well (it’s averaging
7.1/10 on Movie
Fan Central). I guess the main question now is whether or not
the film will have "legs" and carry it past the
original’s total gross and/or whether the release of SAW 3D will
greatly affect how much money it generates next weekend (also
known as Halloween).

The weekend’s other major release, the Clint
Eastwood-directed HEREAFTER opened decently in 4th place with
about $12M. Eastwood’s films are generally geared toward adults
and tend to have greater "legs" than most fly-by-night
genre flicks. Speaking of which, last week’s #1 movie JACKASS 3D
had the greatest drop in the top 10 compared to the figures last
week, losing close to 57% of its audience, although still managing
to add another $22M to its total, which is now at $87M after only
10 days of release (it’s to note that the original JACKASS made
$64M and JACKASS 2 made $73M in their entire theatrical run).

Last week’s #2 movie, RED, managed to stay strong
this weekend losing only one spot and dropping to 3rd place while
adding another $15M to its total. Both THE TOWN and EASY A
remained in the top 10 despite being released six weeks ago,
as THE TOWN closed in on the $85M mark, while EASY A reached the
$55M mark. The two films to drop from the top 10 this week
included Wes Craven’s unfortunate MY SOUL TO TAKE ($14M) and WALL
STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS ($50M).

Next weekend is "Halloween weekend" and
unlike previous years, we have a few horror movies vying for your
dollars including this week’s #1 movie, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2,
which will attempt to keep scaring audiences next weekend, as well
as the supposed "final" SAW movie entitled SAW
3D, and MONSTERS
in limited release. Will you be checking out the latest SAW movie?
VOTE
NOW!!!

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