Weekend Box Office: Paranormal Activity Is The New Blair Witch

By Scott Gwin: 2009-10-25 21:14:04

Has America's love affair with Jigsaw finally begun to wane? The sixth installation in the long-past-its-prime Saw series debuted this weekend and for the first time since the original a Saw movie didn't open at number one. But the real blow is the fact that the Saw VI's $14 million opening is the lowest in the history of the franchise.

Saw VI played second fiddle to Paranormal Activity which has been slowly climbing the chart over the last few weeks with steady increase in the number of theaters running hte movie. This weekend Paranormal made its biggest leap, doubling its exposure to nearly 2,000 theaters achieving its largest weekend haul to date with $22 million. So far it has banked $62 million total in domestic sales. Not bad for a movie made on a budget of less than $20,000. A movie this cheap hasn't done so well since Blair Witch.

The very much non-Halloweeny Astro Boy also bowed in, but got very little attention. The $7 million it banked for its sixth place opening is only a drop in the bucket against its $65 million budget. Meanwhile the very Halloween worthy Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant fared even worse. Its eighth place opening was only worth $6 million, leaving the movie a long way from recovering its $40 million costs.

Hilary Sawnk's biopic Amelia opened in only 800 theaters, but managed to garner enough interest to earn $4 million and eleventh place. That might not be a bad sign if the movie were slated for a wider release push, but Summit isn't looking yet to expand leaving the movie's $40 million budget with little hope of recovery.

For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below.