Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones was the only major release of the weekend, opening in 2,867 US locations. While its estimated $18.2 million domestic take was way off its two predecessors (PA 3’s $52.7m and PA 4’s $29 million), it still more than tripled its $5 million budget. Consider also that the first Paranormal Activity came out in 2009 and they’ve been able to crank out a sequel a year since then. The Marked Ones was a found-footage, Paranormal Activity spinoff set in the Latino community of Oxnard. “The Mexorcist,” as I like to call it, was shrugged at by critics and was apparently not well received by paying customers either.
According to Paramount, the audience was split evenly between men and women, and skewed very young (68 percent under 25 years of age). They awarded the movie a weak “C-” CinemaScore, which is even worse than Paranormal Activity 4’s “C” grade. [BoxOfficeMojo]
So no one likes them but the studio keeps making them and earning triple the budget opening day. Horror movies are kind of like traffic school, they get credit for just showing up.
Elsewhere, Frozen continues to benefit from no kid-movie competition, taking the top spot with $20.7 million. American Hustle and Wolf of Wall Street are still doing will, and look on pace to pass $100 million, which Anchorman 2 has already done. The sequel has long surpassed the first Anchorman, which topped out at $90 million worldwide. Impressive, it was like they barely marketed that thing.
Next week, Lone Survivor goes head to head with The Legend of Hercules, to see which America wants more, a tiny-armed Navy SEAL or a twink Hercules. Personally, I’m saving my money for Aaron Eckhart as a WASP Frankenstein’s monster in I,Frankenstein. They say all the good ideas are already taken, but then “WASP Frankenstein’s monster punching gargoyles in the face” was RIGHT THERE UNDER OUR NOSES. Amazing.
[via BoxOfficeMojo]