Night of The Wandering Souls 24 Million Tickets sold to see  Saw 3-D

By Keith Williams

HOLLYWOOD,CA(Hollywood Today)10/31/2010—Hacking a blunt edge this Halloween weekend, Saw 3D – The Final Chapter, eviscerated an estimated $24.2 million at 2808 abattoirs, pushing last week’s champ Paranormal Activity 2 down a notch with a still scary $16.5 million.

Every ten years or so, a new horror movie comes along that revitalises the genre and provides templates for those that follow wearily in its wake.  When it opened in 2004, the first Saw was such a movie, introducing a new level in mainstream horror gore that led, with Hostel, to the sensationalist label of Torture Porn.

Raking in $55.2 million, Saw spawned many sequels, with II taking $87 million, III $80.2 million, IV $63.3 million, V $56.7 million, and last year’s Saw VI the lowest gross of the series with $27.7 million.

With its sell-by date arguably up with Saw VI, trounced embarassingly in the same week of release by indie-cheapie Paranormal Activity, this year’s entry stayed well clear by opening a week later, and with the added lure of 3D.

3D however has seen its attraction fade over the past six months, what with crap conversions, higher prices, and effects that weren’t exactly what audiences had in mind, expecting 3D to be projectile rather than immersive.

Whether or not the world wants yet another Saw, given that this one declared itself the “Final Chapter”, the opening gross for Saw 3D should tell all sensible producers enough is enough and to get on with cultivating the next original horror film to catch moviegoers’ imaginations.  But then, when was “sensible” a word ever used in Hollywood?

Dropping by 59.4% to second place, Paranormal Activity 2 continued on its cheery way, providing a smidgeon more of nothing happening than the first.

Bubbling below, Bruce and Helen saw Red as their Aged-Team slipped by only 28.1% to grab $10.8 million ($58.9 million in expendables so far), Jackass 3D bludgeoned $8.4 million out of 60.5% less bespectacled audiences to take it into the delinquent corner of the 100 million dollar club, but Clint Eastwood’s supernatural drama Hereafter remained stolidly earthbound with $6.7 million on a 47.4% drop and a haunting total of $22.1 million in lost souls.

Sixth place went to Secretariat with $5 million ($44.7 million gross), The Social Network followed at 7 with $4.7 million ($79.7 million), Life as We Know It clocked in at 8 with $4.1 million ($43.4 million), The Town at 9 with $2 million ($87.6 million in swag to date).

Peeking round the top ten exit door, Conviction slipped into the charts, despite having been released two weeks ago.  Starring Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Minnie Driver and Juliette Lewis, this Fox Searchlight release increased its screens to 565 by 502% for a per-screen-average of $3230.

Weekend Estimates courtesy boxofficemojo.com