Horror films generally barely stay relevant through their first weekend, let alone 10 years, yet this weekend saw more than 2,000 screens dedicated to a 10th anniversary re-release of Saw. Turns out Saw was about as popular a Halloween offering as a syringe-filled box of raisins, and it earned just $650,000, for an average of $315 per location. It was playing on 10 times as many screens as Birdman (our review), incidentally, in case you were wondering whether the world is fair. You’d think all those empty Saw theaters would’ve been an ideal place for a 15-year-old to get a handjob, but it seems they were all in Ouija.
Nightcrawler (our review) took the number one spot with $10.91 million domestic, on a budget of just $8.5 million. It took advantage of a dearth of new releases as everyone else was scared off by Halloween falling on a Friday and keeping everyone out of theaters (which they did, with the total box office down 40% from the same weekend last year). A good movie doing decent business with a smart release plan, imagine that. Nightcrawler played 56% male and 66% over 25, and received a pretty poor B- Cinemascore, in case you were wondering if test audiences were still dumb. “Durr, I didn’t like how the villain was so mean to everyone.”
Of course, Nightcrawler is in a dead heat with Ouija, which earned an estimated $10.9 million in its second weekend, and we won’t know which one was number one until final numbers come out tomorrow. Michael Bay, who co-produced through Platinum Dunes, is still the king of dipshit whisperers. He is never going to not make money.
Before I Go To Sleep was the only other wide release this weekend, some kind of amnesia joint starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth. Be honest, you hadn’t even heard of it before now. It did no business and got terrible reviews, so expect to never hear of it again. I’m sure Colin Firth will bounce back though, man has the stiffest goddamned upper lip in the biz.
Elsewhere, St. Vincent (our review) continues to make more than its previous week, adding another $7.7 million while expanding to 2500 screens in its fourth weekend. I don’t know why they didn’t just open it on 2500 screens to begin with, it’s not an art film.
Anyway, awards season begins in earnest this weekend with Interstellar (hitting on Tuesday on analog 70 mm IMAX screens), Big Hero 6, and The Theory of Everything, the Stephen Hawking biopic starring Eddie Redmayne. You know what they say, it’s not awards season until someone pretends to be disabled.