Cashing in on moviegoers trying to get in the Halloween spirit, Saw III sliced through the competition over the weekend and ended up on top of the box office with a $34.3-million debut.
The opening is the best yet for the horror franchise, and allowed the gory story to easily overtake the previous week's champion, The Prestige, which fell to third with $9.6 million. For the second straight weekend Martin Scorsese's mob tale The Departed was runner up, taking in just a fraction more than The Prestige with $9.8 million.
"Flags of Our Fathers," which cost $90 million to make, continued to struggle despite boasting Oscar winning director Clint Eastwood. The World War II saga's 10-day total is just $19.9 million, but the film could follow the pattern of Eastwood's last two movies, Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby, which became hits on the strength of Academy Awards buzz.
Meanwhile things were equally unbalanced in the world of limited releases, where South African drama Catch A Fire and the Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett vehicle Babel went in completely different directions
Catch a Fire premiered weakly with $2 million in 1,306 theatres, while Babel had a huge opening, grossing $365,801 in seven theatres. Babel traces the consequences of a tragedy in the desert on families in Africa, Mexico and Japan and goes nationwide on November 10.
And all told things were good in Hollywood, where business was is up for the fifth straight weekend.
The top 12 movies took in $89.1 million, a 2.4 per cent boost from the same weekend last year, when Saw II opened on top with $31.7 million.
The low-budget Saw debuted with $18.3 million over the same weekend two years ago, and since has become an annual tradition that follows the diabolical schemes of psycho killer Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), who stages elaborate, bloody games to test the moral fibre of his victims.
And y
es, Saw IV will be in theatres over Halloween weekend in 2007.
"It's the biggest no-brainer of the century to put these movies out on Halloween weekend and wait for the money to roll in," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
Here's the rest of the weekend's top 10, with all figures estimated according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.
1. "Saw III," $34.3 million.
2. "The Departed," $9.8 million.
3. "The Prestige," $9.6 million.
4. "Flags of Our Fathers," $6.35 million.
5. "Open Season," $6.1 million.
6. "Flicka," $5 million.
7. "Man of the Year," $4.7 million.
8. "The Grudge 2," $3.3 million.
9. "Marie Antoinette," $2.85 million.
10. "Running With Scissors," $2.55 million.