LOS ANGELES — After seven films in seven years and nearly $750 million in worldwide box office, Saw is ending with neither a whimper nor a bang.
Saw 3D, advertised as the final installment in the pioneering horror-torture series, opened to $24.2 million this weekend, according to an estimate from distributor Lionsgate.
That’s significantly better than the $14.1 million debut of last year’s box-office disappointment Saw VI. However it’s also well below the $30 million to $34 million collected by Saws two through five on their first weekends, even though those movies did not enjoy the benefit of 3-D ticket price surcharges.
“Last year, a lot of people said, ‘OK, that’s it. Put a fork in it, it’s done,’” said David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate. “The following week, we were all disappointed and thought, what can we do to reinvigorate the franchise? So we shot the movie in 3-D and said this is the final chapter.”
Saw 3D also had the benefit of premium prices for 3-D screenings, which cost a few dollars more than ticketsfor 2-D movies. According to Lionsgate, 3-D theaters accounted for roughly 77 percent of Saw 3D screenings but 92 percent of the movie’s revenues.
That came at an additional cost for Lionsgate, however. While the last few Saw movies all cost about $11 million, the new entry cost about $20 million to produce, primarily because of the new technology.
Saw 3D also had a soft debut compared to the previous weekend’s No. 1 movie, Paramount’s Paranormal Activity 2, a newer fright franchise that opened with $40.7 million but slipped to No. 2 this weekend with $16.5million.
Another franchise playing in 3-D for the first time, Paramount’s Jackass 3D, crossed the $100 million mark, coming in at No. 4 with $8.5 million. The stunt and prank comedy raised its haul to $101.7 million.
The adult action film Red and inspirational drama Secretariat continue to hold up very well. Ticket sales for both declined only 28 percent on their third and fourth weekends, respectively.
In narrower release, Fox Searchlight’s legal drama Conviction broke into the Top 10 after two weeks in a handful of theaters. Starring Hilary Swank in the real-lifestory of a woman who put herself through law school to free her brother on a murder rap, Conviction was No. 10 with $1.8 million, playing in 565 theaters and averaging a modest $3,241 a cinema.
Also in narrower release, Music Box Films had solid results for The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, which follows The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire to finish the trilogy based on late author Stieg Larsson’s best-selling thrillers.
Hornet’s Nest took in $723,301 in 123 theaters, averaging $5,880 a cinema. The Swedish-language film has Larsson’s troubled savant Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) targeted by ruthless conspirators.
Director David Fincher is shooting Columbia Pictures’ English-language remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, starring Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig. The movie is due in theaters in December 2011.
The James Gandolfini-Kristen Stewart independent drama Welcome to the Rileys launched in 10 theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Boston to a soft $45,000.
BOX OFFICEThe top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are: 1. Saw 3D, Lionsgate, $24,230,123, 2,808 locations, $8,629 average, $24,230,123, one week.
2. Paranormal Activity 2, Paramount, $16,508,107, 3,239 locations, $5,097 average, $65,665,972, two weeks.
3. Red, Summit, $10,729,636, 3,349 locations, $3,204 average, $58,823,430, three weeks.
4. Jackass 3D, Paramount, $8,504,163, 3,139 locations, $2,709 average, $101,657,558, three weeks.
5. Hereafter, Warner Bros., $6,422,327, 2,424 locations, $2,649 average, $22,263,797, three weeks.
6. Secretariat, Disney, $5,005,657, 3,108 locations, $1,611 average, $44,708,804, four weeks.
7. The Social Network, Columbia, $4,515,105, 2,767 locations, $1,632 average, $79,520,984, five weeks.
8. Life as We Know It, Warner Bros., $4,055,473, 2,860 locations, $1,418 average, $43,533,312, four weeks.
9. The Town, Warner Bros., $1,975,260, 1,608 locations, $1,228 average, $87,626,867, seven weeks.
10. Conviction, Fox Searchlight,$1,831,111, 565 locations, $3,241 average, $2,383,725, three weeks.
11. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, Warner Bros., $1,758,321, 2,010 locations, $875 average, $52,673,828, six weeks.
12. Easy A, Columbia Screen Gems, $1,067,248, 1,262 locations, $846 average, $56,300,305, seven weeks.
13. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, 20th Century Fox, $783,868, 933 locations, $840 average, $51,219,733, six weeks.
14. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Music Box, $723,301, 123 locations, $5,880 average, $723,301, one week.
15. Devil, Universal, $523,895, 635 locations, $825 average, $33,099,560, seven weeks.
16. Waiting for “Superman,” Paramount, $515,283, 330 locations, $1,561 average, $4,593,109, six weeks.
17. It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Focus, $444,453, 477 locations, $932 average, $5,787,094, four weeks.
18. You Again, Disney, $425,135, 673 locations, $632 average, $24,697,810, six weeks.
19. Alpha and Omega, Lionsgate, $420,958, 676 locations, $623 average, $24,087,398, seven weeks.
20. Inception, Warner Bros., $362,531, 401 locations, $904 average, $290,948,208, 16 weeks.
MovieStyle, Pages 34 on 11/05/2010