Cinefantastique Online

Well, it seems that reports of the death of the torture-porn genre were exaggerated. Although HOSTEL 2 tanked, the debut of SAW IV more or less matched the opening of last year’s SAW III, earning an estimated $32.1-million in 3,183 theatres. Even if the film shows a sharp drop-off over the next couple of weeks, it could go on to earn over $80-million, which would make it the most successful horror flick of the year (an honor that currently belongs to ROOM 1408).

With the rest of Hollywood pretty much ceding the Halloween season to the SAW franchise, there was little else of note in terms of box office results for horror films.

Last weekend’s #1 film, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT suffered a well-deserved slip down to #3, where it earned only $6.7-million That added up to a meagre total of $27.32-million after two weekends of release.

The 3D reissue of Tim Burton’s THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS earned another $3.35-million dollars, while playing in 564 specialty theatres (capable of screening the digitally enhanced 3D version). After two weekends, the 1993 film has added another $10-million to its already sizeable box office total from its original release.

RELATED ARTICLES:

• The Los Angeles Times has an article about the weekend box office, in which an exec for Lionsgate, the company that releases the SAW movies, promises there will be a Part V for next Halloween.
• Variety has a brief profile of Twisted Pictures execs Makr Burg and Oren Koules, who have turned the low-budget SAW films into a blockbuster franchise while eschewing pricey promotional methods favored by the rest of Hollywood.