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Warner Bros Tells Space Story, From The Bra Designers Who … 
Brad Pitt’s Plan B Banner Promotes Jeremy Kleiner To … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Don Jon’ 
Billy Crystal-Starring Comedy From Matt Nix & Larry … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ … 
Hammond On Cannes: A New Day Comes To The Fest As HBO and … 
Cannes: Fleming Reflects And Finds Talented Trio A Breath … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Man Of Steel’ 
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Ang Lee Departs FX Pilot ‘Tyrant’ 
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Cannes: Stanley Weiser To Script ‘Three Graves … 
SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM: The big story this weekend is the pre-Halloween box office — the horror, the horror of it all — and how Saw VI, which has been a disgusting but reliably performing franchise over the years for Lionsgate, was decimated Friday and Saturday by even lower budget Paranormal Activity — despite the Paramount phenom playing in 1,100+ less theaters during its 5th week of release. Twisted Pictures’ Saw has always opened as the #1 horror flick since its sequel, and above $30M for installments II-V, but not this sixquel. It debuted #2 with only $6.9 million Friday but sources tell me it went down -30% to #3 with just $4.7 million Saturday and an estimated $3M for Sunday from 3,036 theaters. It finished the weekend #2 with an underperforming $14.8M. I’m thrilled that it fell apart, finally, since it’s ”Hard R”-rated for torture porn. (While I support a filmmaker’s creative freedom, I do hold responsible those moguls who make money distributing crap like this pic.) “Perhaps they should have made this one in 3-D instead of the next one. Oh please, tell me there won’t be a next one. Please,” a rival studio exec emailed me. Believe me when I say that torture porn flicks embarrass the industry which has been moving away from that and towards PG-13 fright fare.
On the other hand, Paramount’s Paranormal Activity received its “R” rating for language. The pic scored $7.5M Friday and is looking to be close to $8.6 million for Saturday and a weekend of $22 million. The cume should zoom to $62.4M. I can report that, as it expands for next Halloween weekend, the studio is starting to think the thriller has a shot at $100M. Which would make this the most profitable pic in modern Paramount history. After all, the project was acquired for a mere $300K, and the studio spent under $10M total on prints and advertising, “so this will be the best return Paramount has ever had,” an insider tells me. Amazing, since Paramount had been playing the movie mostly at midnight shows and in just a 100 or so dates. Then again, the hype has been so successful — right down to the claim that Steven Spielberg screened it and returned it in a trash bag.
Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s beloved children’s book Where The Wild Things Are did $4.3M Friday, or a disappointing -65% from its “Spikers”-inflated opening a week ago. But Warner Bros hoped for and received a nice Saturday bump of $6.5M to bring the weekend to $14.4M for a -56% drop from last Fri-Sat-Sun. The studio now predicts the pic won’t get past $100M, difficult since the original budget of $85M ballooned past $100M because of the pic’s delay in post-production. At first, the film was financed 50% by Village Roadshow, and 25% each by Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros, which also received its distribution fee and made back its P&A costs. But Warner Bros, on its own, opted to kick in moolah for reshoots and additional costs because Jonze’s first cut was so unacceptable.
With a production budget of $65M, Astro Boy is a wipeout. It debuted to only $1.8M Friday and $7M weekend from 3,014 venues, so it’s a big disaster for Imagi Studios. (Summit Entertainment is only the distributor so collects its fee.) The toon has been sold almost around the globe, but I’m hearing that the classic Japanese Manga character isn’t faring any better in territories there.
Relativity/Universal’s PG-13 Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant directed by Paul Weitz is based on the UK series of books. But it never got out of the gate, opening only #8 with $2.2M Friday and a $6.3M weekend from 2,754 dates in North America — or about half as much as the moviemakers dared hope. Despite a cult following among tweens and teens, this vampire tale didn’t catch lightning in a bottle like the Twilight Saga. I hear the production budget was a modest $40M, but even that doesn’t matter with such low grosses.
Fox Searchlight’s Amelia, in the words of one exec, “couldn’t break away from the Bio channel” with $4M from 818 runs and a mediocre per screen average.
Overall, it looks to be a $121M weekend but slightly down from last year, -9.3%, when High School Musical 3 opened to $42M and Saw V was $30M.
1. Paranormal Activity (Par) Week 5 [1,945 Runs] Wkd $22M, Cume $62.4M
2. Saw VI (Lionsgate) NEW [3,036] Wkd $15.5M
3. Wild Things (WB) Week 2 [3,735] Wkd $14.8M (-54%)
4. Law Abiding (Over) Week 2 [2,890] Wkd $12.7M (-40%), Cume $40.3M
5. Couples Retreat (Uni) Week 3 [3,074] Wkd $11M, Cume $78.2M
6. Astro Boy (Imagi/Summit) NEW [3,014] Wkd $7M
7. The Stepfather (Sony) Week 2 [2,734] Wkd $6.5M, Cume $20.3M
8. Vampire’s Assistant (Relativity/Uni) NEW [2,754] Wkd $6.3M
9. Cloudy/Meatballs (Sony) Week 6 [2,741] Wkd $5.6M, Cume $115.2M
10. Zombieland (Sony) Week 4 [2,447] Wkd $4.3M, Cume $67.3M
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Caught PA last nite and boy-oh-boy, it was scary tho for a fiction. Kudos should be directed at the actors for making it all so believable
Glad it rule the Friday B.O. Here’s betting it will be the No 1 movie this weekend. That said, 100M is achievable for this small movie
I figure PA will go up more than that this weekend. But I am not shocked by the huge decline in the Saw series, all it took was a GOOD horror film to dethrone the atrocity of that vile series. Here’s hoping they put the kibosh on Saw VII in 3-D!
Can’t SUMMIT open anything that isn’t a Twilight movie? I saw Astro Boy (was dragged to) and it was a hell of a lot better than the trailers. In fact, it was pretty damn good. Heads should roll.
Uh, Summit also made Knowing. That’s the other BO hit of theirs.
The only thing Summit is losing out on are the U.S. distribution fees for “Astro Boy.” Imagi is the true loser, that’s $65M they’re never going to get back.
Maybe Imagi should’ve picked Warner Brothers to distribute “Astro Boy” instead of Summit. At least their TMNT revival broke even and then some two years ago.
Yeah, I’m astonished by Astro Boy’s performance. It’s a really good movie – better than Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. And a HELL of a lot better than that dismal snoozefest Wild Things. Maybe Astro will do better on Sat and Sun; it deserves to.
Cheryl=Summit employee. Don’t be so simple-minded, Wild Things will be considered an underappreciated classic in the years to come and will make its money back and then some as people revisit it at home, etc. It’s a beautifully made film.
Wild Things will fade from people collective memories, only leaving behind the slight stench of mediocrity and dullness.
SAW 6 will make more than 20 Million dollars this weekend and will double its budget in the first weekend. By the time it leaves theaters it will make about 45 Million dollars domestically and around 80 Million dollars worldwide and SAW 7 in 3D will for sure happen.
Don’t forget PA isn’t the only movie that was made for cheap. Although SAW 6 was made for far more when comparing the 2 films SAW still has a very very low budget.
Saw VI may not be a masterpiece, but it’s the first decent movie in the franchise since the third film. In fact, it’s probably the the third-best of the series thus far, and the critics agree: 43% on RT may not seem like much, but when you consider the fact that Saw V earned only 15%, you know the filmmakers have done something right. Firing David Hackl was the first step.
It’s too bad it couldn’t coexist with Paranormal Activity in the marketplace, but I don’t think that’s the entire reason why it’s failing. I think people just got really turned-off after Saw V, which was by far the weakest film in the series, the first truly boring Saw movie. There’s a slim, slim hope for Saw VI to actually hold up better once word gets out that this is no Saw V, but I doubt it.
Oh well. When future analysts look back and wonder what undid the Saw franchise, remember Saw V.
I think you’ve hit it on the head, DK. Saw V was abysmal, whereas Saw VI has the franchise back on track. I enjoyed VI enough to see it twice this weekend. Yeah. You read that right. Twice. Totally worth it.
Nikki, you’re one of my favorite people, but quit with the grandstanding. I’m not a Saw fan personally, but the phrase torture porn is a misnomer and using it is insulting to the droves of people who flock to see these pics year after year. ‘Porn’ implies that the viewers are watching for sexual gratification, while the Saw series is clearly a HORROR series. People see these films to be horrified by the images depicted. How exactly is that porn?
I’m horrified by porn. So how is that different?
The intent of porn isn’t to horrify, it’s to please. Porn may be horrifying to some, but that doesn’t make it horror, it’s still porn. Hard R horror films are supposed to be (and are for the majority of viewers) disturbing and hard to watch, which is close to the opposite of the intended effect of porn. Again, calling these movies torture porn is one of the most insulting things I can think of to anyone who’s seen even one of them. And considering the Saw series was already the highest grossing horror franchise of all time (in unadjusted dollars) before this installment, that’s a helluva lot of insulted moviegoers.
As I understand it, it’s not called “torture porn” because anybody’s getting sexual gratification. It’s called torture porn because the gore/torture scenes in the movie are explicit, over-the-top, voyeuristic, and are the main reason the movie exists. Just like sex scenes in pornos.
Fair enough. I appreciate the sane, rational response, and I have to say I agree with your assessment. I should maybe clarify something, I don’t think Nikki calling it torture porn means she believes everyone who saw the movie was getting sexual gratification. I do however think it’s a poor phrase to use, as it can lead to the incredibly nasty kinds of perceptions demonstrated so well by “Lena” a couple posts below this one (and one can only hope she wasn’t being entirely serious). If it’s a bad movie, it’s a bad movie, no need to label it something that makes people who didn’t see it feel morally superior to those who did.
Lena’s post is incoherent at best. However, torture porn is a pretty good label for the Saw movies even if using that phrase results in a “lot of insulted movie goers.” Just because a lot of people are up for it, doesn’t mean it’s a good thing for the overall culture or even for those individuals who go see it.
The phrase “torture porn” has nothing to do with sexual gratification. It means the movie appeals to base human instincts and audiences are stimulated (not in a sexual way) by graphic depictions of violence.
The whole series is silly. The filmmakers include some absurd “message” they try bashing down your throat in between the disgusting gore so you can justify watching this shit by convincing yourself its some deep film. It’s not. These films are an embarrassment to Hollywood and to whoever pays to see this crap.
I think it fits perfect. Torture porn. That what it is. So you should call it torture porn. Torture porn, Yeah, you are watching torture porn. You like torture porn. You are a torture porn watcher. Why so shy? Anyway, don’t forget the big upside being a torture porn regular watcher, liking to watch torture porn. Next time an Al Quaida commander decapitate an american prisoner again, you will not be horrified. More you will tell us, how superbad the acting was, and that your favorite torture porn, SAW I-VI was so much better. And btw waterboarding cannot be torture. Because there are so many better ways to torture. That you know, because you like torture porn.
don’t even joke about soldiers getting killed, when you’re talking about stupid movies. that reflects very badly on your character.
As a fan of the “Saw” films, I was disappointed that most of the audience fled after the abysmal part V when the new installment actually delivers, and has a much appreciated, if rather blatantly obvious pro-healthcare reform message amidst the gore. Some people just can’t see past the violence to appreciate the often times sly philosophical themes in the films, and denounce it as mere “torture porn” in their laziness.
“Believe me when I say that torture porn flicks embarrass the industry”
No, nothing can embarass the industry until it flops.
I fail to see how an $18 million opening is SUCH a disaster. While I recognize the others opened from 30-33 (aside from the 18 mil of #1), it’s still made on a budget of around 10-11 million, will still sell incredibly well on DVD/Blu and will have solid future value in Saw collector sets (ala Nightmare on Elm Street) when the series wraps up – which will be, according to wikipedia, after 8 of them. Oh yeah, they’ve also always doubled there domestic gross when factoring in the worldwide. Seems like a nice little profit to me, even after factoring in advertising, prints, etc…
To anon: Summit has opened one other movie: Knowing. I don’t think anyone saw that movie bringing in $80/$182+ million (domestic/worldwide) total after that trailer. And they’ve done a decent job nurturing Hurt Locker into a serious awards contender.
Let’s not forget the terrible opening by Astro Boy and what must spell doom for IMAGI.
What I don’t get is why anybody thought Astro Boy would do well. Especially not good enough to justify a $65 million production budget. I mean, seriously, even Imagi’s TMNT only made $50 million domestically, and the Ninja Turtles are absurdly more popular than frickin Astro Boy.
Astro Boy is Speed Racer all over again, and what the Green Hornet will be in a year or so – the main point being, these properties weren’t even popular when they were new. So why would they be popular as remakes?
SAW VI prbly cost around $10 million, so it’s still all profit for Lionsgate. They’re weeping in their champagne.
I wouldn’t be so sure about “Saw VI.” I hate the franchise myself, but Lionsgate only spends around $10M on each pic (and each pic has grossed $68M each on average, counting the $80M+ gross for the first two sequels). If it makes $40-$50M in its entire run, then I have to say Lionsgate is subjecting us to Saw VII in 3-D next October.
Even if “Saw VI” drops off big time next weekend, Lionsgate is already in the black. Both Paramount and Lionsgate are laughing their way to the bank this week.
Spielberg was scared when watched this… I was scared. It will go up and up, as every time more and more people get interested in it.
The drop in “Where the Wild Things Are” is predictable, since Maurice Sendak’s book was never really “beloved” by children. Through the years it was always purchased by arty, bohemian aunts and uncles as a hapless gift, and was left to get kicked under the bed by kids who prefer cuter and more colorful things. It was a dark book with ugly, scratchy drawings of hideous characters. Making an expensive movie of it for children was a huge mistake.
I have no hippie relatives. I had no one telling me that this book was “hip” or “deep”. I loved the drawings and empathized with Max. It was my favorite book, along with “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”.
LOL. I grew up in an apple-pie small-town with no “bohemian aunts” in sight and I loved the book when I was little. And so did pretty much everybody I knew. It was always out in the school library (that’s the one that only kids go to, no “arty uncles”) and they had a bunch of copies, too. And one of the major audiences for the movie has been twenty-somethings who grew up with it.
I admire the balls of someone trying, in such an audacious manner, to rewrite history though. Nice try.
yes, you have to love these internet mandarins who throw down and describe everybody’s life experiences and childhood details, with the usual brainwashed blue/red, right/left overtones. Brainwashed much?
I lived in a hick dump and liked the not kidding around illustrations of WTWTA, though I preferred In The Night Kitchen.
Where The Wild Things Are the film, will over time, I think , become The Big Lebowski of children’s films..
The rapidly dwindling box office receipts speak volumes of how much this overrated book and its grotesque characters are “beloved” by children. Maybe parents who dragged their kids to this told them they were gonna see “ice Age.”
Where the Wild Things Are is/was plenty popular as a 15-page picture book. The problem with the movie is that as at 1 hour 40 minutes it isn’t wildly particular to children’s tastes, not being colorful/flashy/fast-paced. I suspect it’s not so much that kids were chomping at the bit to go so much as it was their parents who were willing to take them.
It’s because the MOVIE is not for kids. Nor it appears to have been marketed for kids.
From what I gather it’s primarily the adults that READ this book that are seeing/enjoying the movie–that in itself is pretty remarkable, as movies based on books, mostly dissapoint.
I’m reading online that it was 48 pages long?
Exactly. Studios have been known to market movies dishonestly, but that was not the case with this film. It was clear from the trailer that it was more for adults and mature kids.
The truth is somewhere between your depictions, Michael & zangadoo.
I became interested in the book as an older child, probably babysitting. I like a lot of other Maurice Sendak. I never loved the Wild Things, but I appreciated it. I feel the same ‘meh’ way about the movie…appreciate where it’s coming from but know it’s not for me, but hey, if every movie was made for everybody what kind of hell would that be.
I definitely understand cheering for its failure somewhat, tho…the filmmaker and primary audience come off as an awfully, unjustifiably, smug bunch.
So, does this mean Lionsgate will finally put an end to the “Saw” series? One can only hope…
In what Universe is a 40 mil budget modest when the movie open to 6.5 mil? It’ll be lucky to top off at 20/25. Even with ancillaries, it’ll be a serious loss for the studio. Who keeps letting Paul Weitz direct movies?
What’s sad is he’ll ride the coattails of an already successful franchise – like his brother – and continue to get jobs.
At least Astroboy has a chance to do really good business overseas. It was never an American property anyway.
Regret to inform Astro Boy has open #10 in Japan and disappeared the second week. Austra
Regret to inform that Japan, the Astro Boy market that had the best chance was a disaster opening in the # 10 slot and disapppeared the second week. Australia was a similar bust. Only now remains Europe to generate any revenue.
see vampire’s assistant? unless helgeland turned in a flawless script i can’t imagine how that would be close to watchable after those trailers?
what an acquire by par.
we gotta do this more, word-of-mouth advertising, ain’t no need to spend so much to market a movie, shift a chunk of that money on the 4th floor to acquisitions and story dept, ya heard?
nevertheless..
the bbq last night for the marketing dept was bumpin’ , and well deserved.
thanks for the shirts and burgers, ima microwave them on monday when BO comes out in the trades.
If you don’t like these films, don’t watch them. As for me and millions of others, we will continue to see them because we enjoy them.
And there is at least two more Saw films scheduled. You’d think by now, you all complainers would be use to it.
You know what? I hate comedies, can’t stand the damn boring shit. I hope they stop making those. Less un-funny shit like Couples Retreat and more films like Hostel and Saw.
Good to see the SAW series finally fading away as it should have YEARS ago.
Utter garbage that represents modern moviemaking at its worst…
While I support a filmmaker’s creative freedom, I do hold responsible those moguls who make money distributing crap like this pic….
Believe me when I say that torture porn flicks embarrass the industry….”
Please, get some psychological help. In your mind you have somehow separated the “filmmaker” (pretentious, that) from the “mogul.” They are the same. It’s the same sick, evil, incestuous industry.
And your phony slap at “torure porn flicks” belies what you know to be true: both the “filmmaker” and the “mogul” are disappointed only that they can’t make their porn more graphic, more evil, more ugly.
The “industry” is far past being embarrassed. It’s already disgusting.
Such a dark post, Koblog… and hilarious!
But is Saw VI really the biggest example of how ugly the industry is? Is this the worst they have to offer us? What about next week’s release, I Spit On Your Grave… uh, I mean… This Is It, created solely for the purpose of exploiting and prostituting a dead man? Which is worse: A fictional character crying and begging for help before they are stabbed in the brain, or a real-life person being trampeled and plastered to fill someone else’s wallet?
It’s hard to blame Saw for anything when these films are drops in the bucket, never to become one of the 300 highest-grossing films of all-time, unadjusted for ticket price inflation. What about New Moon, which is sure to be even more brain-numbing and thematically-incoherent and dramatically-incompetent than its predecessor, yet will probably rake in $100 million opening weekend? I find that a bit more disturbing than the fact that Saw grossed $7 million yesterday.
The only people who paid to see Wild Things this weekend were the teenagers who saw the merchandise at Hot Topic, pretended they read the book every day as a kid, and therefore NEEDED to see it to fit in with the rest of the flock, but were unfortunately grounded last weekend after the middle-school principal called and said their son Renegade has been suspended for talking about suicide in his Guitar I class, which he has been failing ever since he learned the first four seconds of “The Great Escape.”
Every movie on the marquee this weekend is dumbing down society, and the good movies are rejected by the average moviegoers’ weak mentality and stomach. Catch a showing of Paranormal Activity and see how many people hate the movie because they didn’t show the ghosts.
EVERYTHING about the industry is poison, and picking Saw as the scapegoat is over-the-top and incorrect. But if you must smile as the series falls, don’t get too comfortable: Before long, there will be another horror series to pick on. Meanwhile, The Reader is nominated for an Academy Award and Fox considers remaking Funny People.
And to think I wrote this entire post without a single Transformers reference.
“Paranormal Activity” was a solid little film. Scary? No. Scariest Ever? Hell No. But it was a decent flick that build up a lot of tension and suspense, yet lost me completely with that non-shocking, CGI enhanced bullshit ending.
Had they stuck with the original ending, it would have probably disturbed me the way the really lame ending they ended up with is scaring those same lame “Hot Topic” teenagers you described above.
I don’t think people who hate “Paranormal Activity”, hate it for the lack of ghosts. I think people who dislike it, dislike it because it’s all build up with a bullshit ending.
Also, the Ouija Board scene and the picture in the attic are two scenes where I called “Shenanigans!” and took away some of the realistic vibe of the film.
Finally if anyone wants to say I am hating PA because I am a “Saw” fan. I hate the “Saw” films. Haven’t seen a “Saw” film since part 3, and never liked any of them.
[SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!]No one hated Paranormal Activity because they didn’t show the ghost;I personally hated it because it was suspenseful for the first thirty minutes or so, then the filmmaker started to throw in bullshit like the ghost whisperer, who refer the couple to the Demon whisperer.Also, bruno hit the nail on the head with the Ouija Board, it was silly and amateur hour; I was waiting for the couple to pull out a Ion detectors and Dowsing Rods to have a ridiculous cliche trifecta after that one.The boyfriend demeanor also iffy.For a guy who thought the whole ghost thing was bullshit, he changed into a ghost hunter pretty fast.From taking it as a joke one day to less than a week later reading a book on ancient demons and wanting to take the demon head on.All in All, this movie was never going to
scare anyone who wasn’t superstitious or a complete wuss, but it showed promise of being a decent suspense film, but failed because of some lame plot devices and a awful ending.Paranormal Activity is the classic case of hype over quality.
As for Saw, I never liked any of them.I enjoy horror films, but the Saw series was never horrifying.Saw movies are and always will be boring trash marketed to young jerk off who live out their fantasy of being the boogyman through the jigsaw character; when in reality, they are closer to the Power Puff Girls.
Except Saw IV, V, and VI are all LESS bloody than III.
Hostel was torture porn. You’re calling the SAW franchise torture porn?! What part of SAW is porn? If I remember right, there has only been 1 topless women in the first 5 movies! Don’t generalize all the recent horror greatness with a term that one movie got slapped with around 4 years ago. Let us horror fans have our moment, ok? We just took the top 2 spots at the box office with a steady franchise and a movie that we demanded (via eventful) go nationwide over the last month.
…I will be watching SAW 6 later today and viewing Paranormal Activity at the first available opportunity. Oh, and according to the horror community (http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/film/1831) SAW VI is a success.
I’m also hoping that the Cirque Du Freak: Vampire’s Assistant spawns something on par with Twilight. And by that I mean a movie series based on a book series about vampires-hopefully having nothing to do with a love story.
Re. Saw, you’ve got to be at least somewhat impressed that a film can reach the SIXTH installment in a series and STILL open to $18M. I’m not planning on seeing it – not because it’s “torture porn” (and come on, why are you insulting porn, which is a great thing), but because I just feel like the story ran its course about 3 installments ago. Didn’t the guy die like 3 films ago? Then how are there still all these killings? He set ALL of this up in advance?! Really?!
Apparently he had assistants who took over his work for him after he died.
With how little these awful Saw movies cost to make, this new one sadly made enough to justify another. The series won’t be officially dead and buried where it belongs until one of them opens outside the top 10 with a gross in the thousands.