Weekend Box Office: The Rise of the 15k Film!

Wow. Just to show how viral campaigning and word of mouth can topple the opening of a gigantic franchise, Paranormal Activity in it’s fifth week in theaters took down Saw VI with a swift kick to the knees. Paramount must be so happy right now. They are just living the dream of taking a small movie and blowing it up as big as it can possibly go.

With the economy as it is and studios in trouble, you can bet we are going to see a lot of movies about this time next year trying to emulate Paranormal’s success. Hell, they could make a hundred small budget films for the price of one main stream one and only need one to hit to make back their money. Don’t tell me that’s not tempting, especially when you see so many mainstream films missing the mark..

There are a number of new releases this week that were expected to do better. Check out the numbers and discuss the disappointments below…

1. Paranormal Activity | LW 3 | Paramount | Weekend Gross $22,000,000 | Average Per Theater $11,311 | Total Gross $62,477,000 | Production Budget $15k | Week 5
2. Saw VI | New | LGF | Weekend Gross $14,800,000 | Average Per Theater $4,875 | Total Gross $14,800,000 | Production Budget $11 | Week 1
3. Where the Wild Things Are | LW 1 | WB | Weekend Gross $14,420,000 | Average Per Theater $3,861 | Total Gross $53,960,000 | Production Budget $100 | Week 2
4. Law Abiding Citizen | LW 2 | Over. | Weekend Gross $12,713,000 | Average Per Theater $4,399 | Total Gross $40,318,000 | Production Budget $50 | Week 2
5. Couples Retreat | LW 4 | Uni. | Weekend Gross $11,097,000 | Average Per Theater $3,610 | Total Gross $78,213,000 | Production Budget $70 | Week 3
6. Astro Boy | New | Sum. | Weekend Gross $7,017,000 | Average Per Theater $2,328 | Total Gross $7,017,000 | Production Budget $65 | Week 1
7. The Stepfather | LW 5 | SGem | Weekend Gross $6,500,000 | Average Per Theater $2,377 | Total Gross $20,352,000 | Production Budget $20 | Week 2
8. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant | New | Uni. | Weekend Gross $6,348,000 | Average Per Theater $2,305 | Total Gross $6,348,000 | Production Budget $40 | Week 1
9. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs | LW 6 | Sony | Weekend Gross $5,600,000 | Average Per Theater $2,043 | Total Gross $115,204,000 | Production Budget $100 | Week 6
10. Zombieland | LW 7 | Sony | Weekend Gross $4,300,000 | Average Per Theater $1,757 | Total Gross $67,308,000 | Production Budget $23.6 | Week 4

Amelia was trailing in at #11. Something tells me it won’t be seeing any of the top ten spots or any Oscar nods with all of the scathing reviews it got.

The Vampire’s Assistant was supposed to kick off a new franchise for Universal (which it is badly in need of) but sadly it looks like not that many people were too excited about a friendly vampire. Maybe the buzz for it will grow in the coming weeks but definitely not if you read my review.

Astro Boy seems to be suffering from a similar fate. What’s odd about this movie is about 6 months ago I remember hearing a lot about it and being excited for it, but for the past few weeks the buzz just died out. Perhaps it’s a bad time of year for a film like this? Or is it just that no one is interested in Astro Boy?

And although Where the Wild Things Are is holding on strong, I’m sure they were hoping it would be doing a bit better in only it’s second week in theaters. Have audiences lost their imaginations?

What do you think of this weekends numbers?