Other Crap

Weekend box office - Saw II shows some teeth.

• The overall box office, as measured by the top twelve films this year versus the top twelve last year, was down 7%, but (a) that was a major improvement over last week (b) Saw II was a major exception.
• Saw II was the winner of the week, with a thirty million dollar opening. That was about 50% better than expected, and about 65% better than Saw's debut last Halloween.
• According to Mojo, Saw II was made for four million dollars. Wow! That'll make a buck or two.
• Unfortunately, the success of the Saw sequel seems to have cannibalized from other films. Compared to the predictions made by Box Office Mojo, Saw 2th was the only film to exceed expectations.
• The other new releases were just slightly off target, and all finished within the range established by Weekend Warrior and Box Office Mojo.
• The carry-overs got killed. The big loser of the week was Doom, which entered record-setting territory by dropping from $15.5 million to $4.0. It dropped 73.8% from its first weekend to its second. Among films with an opening weekend above $10 million, this is the second worst performance of all time, exceeded only by Star Trek: Nemesis.
• My guess is that Saw II and Doom share the same target market, and those moviegoers devoured the fresher meat. If they hadn't already seen Doom, they chose Saw II instead - a logical choice since it's a horror movie, and it is Halloween weekend. But I'm just speculating.
• Capote and "Good Night, and Good Luck" continued to pull in solid revenues per screen in limited runs.