Sequel Delivers 'Paranormal' Results

Paranormal Activity 2, the follow-up to last year's micro-budgeted yet mega-grossing Paranormal Activity ($108 million in grosses against a reported $15,000 budget), had a huge opening weekend that catapulted it into profitability within hours of opening.  With a budget of approximately $3 million, the film was significantly more expensive than its predecessor.  The extra investment paid off, with an opening weekend worth $41.5 million.  Strong audience word-of-mouth will likely carry the film over the coming weeks, even in the face of strong competition from Saw 3D.

Click to read more ...

Jackass 3D High Fives Into First Place for October 15-17 Weekend

A late update for the October 15-17 weekend, due to a family vacation.

Jackass 3D, the third in the venerable "reality" franchise starring Johnny Knoxville and his merry band of freak show contenders, opened in first place over the October 15 - 17th weekend.  The $50.3 million tally was significantly higher than the opening weekend results of the first two films in the series, showing that Knoxville's audience still has a healthy appetite for his particular brand of gross-out humor.

In an example of great counter-programming, second place went to Red, starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren.  The $21.8 million opening was more than respectable for a film aimed at and heavily marketed toward an older demographic.

In third place was the previous two weekends' number one film, The Social Network.  The movie about the early days of online social networking web site Facebook added another $10.3 million in a 33% drop week-over-week.  The Social Network's cumulative tally after the weekend was at $62.4 million.

In fourth place was Secretariat with $9.6 million.  With a 27% drop week-over-week, the film now had a cumulative total gross of $27.3 million after two weeks.

Finally, fifth place went to Life As We Know It, grossing $8.9 million for $28.6 million to-date.

'Social Network' Liked Enough to Take Second Weekend

David Fincher's The Social Network dropped a reasonable 31% in its second weekend, adding another $15.5 million to its tally.  In a weak weekend at the box office, this was enough for a first place finish.  The film about the early days of popular social networking site Facebook has earned approximately $46 million to date against a $50 million budget.

In second place was newcomer Life As We Know It, starring Katherine Heigl.  The film received poor reviews, but has scored good word of mouth with its target audience.  Its opening weekend was worth $14.6 million against a budget of $38 million.

Click to read more ...

'Social Network' Pokes Competition, Let Me In Keeps Audiences Out

David Fincher's The Social Network, about the creation of Facebook and its creator Mark Zuckerberg rode a wave of strong reviews to the top spot over its opening weekend, with an estimated box office total of $23 million.  With a budget of approximately $50 million, The Social Network will likely have very little difficult making its way into the black.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole took second place, falling a soft 33% from its opening last weekend.  With $10.8 million added to its total, for a cumulative run of $30 million, the Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) directed film will likely not recover its $100 million production budget, although family-friendly films do tend to do well on home video, so that will remain to be seen.

Click to read more ...