1. Paranormal Activity- $22M/$62.5M
Well surprise surprise. Who's got the big bat now, boys? The little movie that could dulled Saw's blade this week, expanding to well over 2,500 screens. At this point I've been talking about this film so much that I feel like there's not much left to say, but I'm expecting perhaps one more week at the top of the charts due to the fact that Halloween is still a few days away and people will still be gathering in large groups to see it. Or...is it possible that everyone who avoided Saw VI last weekend will make up for it this week? Only time will tell.
2. Saw VI- $14.8M
Jigsaw's been dead for like four years, and yet he still lives on somehow through flashback, but this is the deadest he's felt in quite some time. The usually reliable Saw series debuted with it's weakest opening ever in the face of some stiff competition in a similar genre. The general trend for Saw is that it debuts very strong then quickly fades out, but one has to wonder if this opening spells the end of the line. At this point, Saw has exceeded the typical shelflife for a horror series by atleast three years, and while I would consider this to be arguably the best film of the bunch maybe people have finally grown tired of Jigsaw's puzzles and are ready for something different.
3. Where the Wild Things Are- $14.4M/$54M
Ouch! Somebody took more than just a bite out of Catherine Keener's shoulder and chomped a helluva lot out of the box office as well. Tumbling a massive 56%, Spike Jonze's monster fest is looking less like the juggernaut I thought it would be and is angling on a major financial disappointment. I still think it will have quite a bit of staying power on the chart, based on generally positive word of mouth and rather slim choices in the "family friendly" category.
4. Law Abiding Citizen- $12.7M/$40.3M
Revenge is always reliable motivating factor, and this week it motivated enough people that the Gerard Butler revenge thriller only dropped 40%.
5. Couples Retreat- $11.1M/$78.2M
Despite awful reviews and a general lack of comedy, people are still turning up to watch Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn perfectly portray shells of their former selves.
6. Astro Boy- $7.02M
I hate to see Astro Boy treated this way. He's so cute and cuddly with that little peak in his hair. And by "treated this way" I mean by the filmmakers, who apparently couldn't wrangle a coherent story out of a simple premise. So it only makes sense that the animated sci-fi flick about a robot boy with guns shooting out of his arse got off to a subpar debut.
7. The Stepfather- $6.5M/$20.4M
Never underestimate the staying power of a good guilty pleasure flick. Just look at how long Obsessed hung around the Top 10 awhile back. At $6.5M, that's approximately $1M for every time we see Amber Heard in nothing but her bathing suit. Reason enough for any red blooded American male to buy a ticket.
8. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant- $6.35M
This one had DOA written all over it. Looking like a mish-mash of various "hot" genres with little to no focus on what the story was actually about, the film failed to appeal to any audience in particular. Vampire fiends probably aren't all that interesed in John C. Reilly as a lead vamp; and the relatively unknown main character probably couldn't be picked out of a police line-up. It seemed to be banking on it's weirdness to get over, such as seeing Salma Hayek with a beard. Interesting, but I like my Ms. Hayek scantily clad and decidedly beard-free. Something like this...
9. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs- $5.6M/$115M
10. Zombieland- $4.3M/$67.3M
Time to nut up or shut up, or you're out of the Top 10!
Hilary Swank's Amelia Earhart biopic, Amelia, failed to take off as it brought in only $4M. The real story for me is the piddling number of sites it was playing at, a woeful 818 theatres. I think I could get more theatres than that to show my home movies to, and yet an Oscar winner in a film that's being talked about as a possible Oscar contender can't even crack 1,000. That's absurd.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra just cracked the $150M mark. Yes, it's still playing in theatres somewhere.
Apparently I'm not the only one with a twisted mind, because Lars Von Trier's Antichrist got off to a devilish good start, bringing in $73,500 in only 6 theatres. That's a per site average of over $12,000.
