Saw Not Seen as Nightcrawler and Ouija Tie for the Halloween Box Office
The 10th anniversary re-release of Saw scored one of the worst debuts ever for a movie released in over 2,000 theaters, trailing only the kiddy flops Delgo and Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure in terms of box office poison.
I can’t even wrap my head around what Lionsgate was thinking re-releasing Saw for its 10th anniversary. Is Hollywood now even trying to reboot nostalgia too soon, or were they hoping fans would flock in such a way as to indicate they really want a new series of Saw sequels/reboots?
Sorry, Jigsaw. Two films tied for the top of the Halloween weekend box office, and neither included elaborate DIY torture traps or creepy puppets on tricycles. If it’s Halloween, it used to be Saw.
The top box office spot for Halloween 2014 belonged to Jake Gyllenhaal’s sociopathic crime scene photographer as Nightcrawler opened #1. Box Office Mojo reports a $10.91 million opening, putting it in a virtual tie with last weekend’s #1, Ouija. When the dust settles on Monday, one or the other may pull ahead just enough to definitively lay claim to the top slot.
In its second week Ouija continued to appeal to tweeners looking for an entry-level horror offering at the mall’s multiplex. The $5 million Blumhouse spookfest benefited from the Halloween spirit, dropping only 44 percent with another $10.90 million.
That brings it to the $35 million benchmark that’s been the best any horror flick can do at the box office this year. The fact that Ouija is poised to be one of the year’s highest grossing horror movies should tell you all you need to know about what a weak year for the genre it has been.
Speaking of weak, oh my… Saw wasn’t expect to make much for its one-week only return to theaters and still managed to be a near record-making flop. A pathetic $650,000 was all the 10th anniversary re-release could muster for the Halloween weekend. That averages out to 39 tickets per theater. Perhaps Hollywood should strongly reconsider re-releasing movies that’s aren’t that old and are readily available on DVD, Blu-ray, and VOD, often in discounted bundle packs with other entries in the series.
Next weekend Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and Marvel/Disney’s Big Hero 6 open so say sayonara to Nightcrawler and Ouija and everything else scrounging for dollars at the box office.
You can also pretty much say sayonara to big screen horror for the year other than The Pyramid, opening in the post-Thanksgiving weekend slot generally reserved for films being dumped by the studio with little prospects of making bank. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 doesn’t even really fit the mold anymore since the two-part climax abandons the Battle Royale-esque aspects in favor of a full-on Return of the Jedi-esque revolutionary war.
So, uh, have you seen John Wick yet? What are you waiting for? More headshots than a zombie apocalypse flick!
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