Paranormal Activity 2 Is A Scary Success

It topped the US box office charts
Source: Box Office Mojo

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That sound? No, it’s not a demonic presence. That’s the sound of Paramount starting, behind closed doors, to plan a Saw-style Paranormal Activity franchise, with one film released per year. How can we tell it’s happening despite no official word? Try the fact that the sequel has just scared up more than $41 million at the US box office in its first weekend. It’s not quite a repeat of the first film’s performance, but then that was a special case – shot for around $15,000, touted at festivals and finally bought by Paramount, where executives and Steven Spielberg championed it into a stealthy, sleeper-hit, word-of-mouth blockbuster. But this new film was shot relatively cheaply too ($3 million is thrifty in studio terms), and has already returned a healthy profit after just a few days on release. So we’re guessing Paramount will take advantage, especially given that this is apparently the biggest ever opening for a straight supernatural horror movie displacing The Grudge. Jackass 3D fell to second, hitting its head on the way down but still doing solid business ($21.6 million) while Red dropped to third with $15 million. Clint Eastwood’s meditation on life and death, Hereafter, surged up the charts after expanding to wide release, adding $12 million to its total, an amusing 5,348.8% rise from last week’s take. No, that’s not a typo. The Social Network rounds out the top five with $7.3 million. The rest of the charts is dominated by Secretariat in sixth, with $6.9 million, Life as We Know It seventh with $$6.1 million, Legend of the Guardians at eighth with $3.1 million, The Town at ninth with $2.7 million and Easy A preparing to stroll out of the charts on a high, adding $1.2 million for a current total of $54.8 million. Not bad for an $8 million budget… To scare the living daylights out of your charts, head to Box Office Mojo.

James White