Final Box Office Numbers In

As Meh brought to you, on Friday Paranormal Activity defeated Saw VI by a half million dollar margin.  The weekend was young, anything could happen.  Now, Boxofficemojo has the current weekend estimates.  And unlike the close Friday call, there was no close call this weekend. 

By popular demand, Paramount expanded release into just over 1,900 theaters, Paranormal Activity took #1 with with $22million against which Saw VI made $14.8million, which is the lowest opening of the entire franchise.  The original made $18.2million when it was released back in 2004.  With a budget of only about $15,000, Paranormal Activity has raked in $62.4million since its initial release.  You do the math on the profit margin. 

In a way, it seems to me almost that Paramount purposely waited for this weekend to release Paranormal wide, just to see if it could topple the Saw series; which has ruled the horror Halloween offerings for the last several years.  Most other studios have seemed afraid of releasing other horror films against Lionsgate's moneymaker, but with strong backing, Paramount took and won the gamble.  Paranormal I think proves that while a number of folks wanted comfort food, a greater number wanted to something else on the menu. 

The other genre offering The Vampire's Assistant tanked at number eight with $6.3million. The remake of The Stepfather, fell to seventh with $6.5million.  But even with Saw VI not preforming to expectations, I doubt it'll affect production on Saw VII, which is due out this same time next year but in 3D; which I'm sure will boost sales.

Next week we have Ti West's House of the Devil going into a limited release.  Will Paranormal Activity hold number one during Halloween weekend?  Possibly, then again we have the Michael Jackson documentary This Is It, which I can probably see coming into first place.  With the success of Paranormal Activity, here's to hoping that original films sitting on studio shelves will see the light of the projector.