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Box Office: Disney's MUSICAL Victorious, Lionsgate Banks with SAW V
By
Jarrod Sarafin
October 26, 2008
Scott Patterson must escape a horrible trap in SAW V(2008).
© Lionsgate
We knew High School Musical 3: Senior Year would win this box office weekend due to pre-sales and the teen-focused hype machine coming out of Disney so the film launching into theaters with $42.0 million isn’t surprising. In fact, a lot of people were expecting even more cash for the singing teenagers. But it’s yet another major success for the studio no matter how high the expectations. As the usual with these kinds of productions, costs were low and profits will be high. HSM 3 cost only $11 million to make and it has a domestic gross of $42.0 mil after only three days at the box office.
The big story for this weekend should be the long lasting and profitable Saw franchise out of Lionsgate. Every time, this franchise pulls in some cash for the studio due to their very low budgets. Five years in a row with five box office wins even if they didn’t grab the top spot every time in their debuts as this year proves. The original Saw opened in theaters on October 24, 2004 and grabbed $18.2 million with a budget of only $1.2 mil. Saw II came out a year later with a budget of only $4 million. It would go on to gross $31.7 million in its first three days.
Saw III, with a budget of only $10, opened in theaters a year later with a $33.6 mil in October 2006. Last year, the fourth film debuted with a $31.7 million opening for Lionsgate.
See the trend here? No matter how low scores the films get from some critics, it’s a very profitable franchise for the studio. Most franchises usually fail sooner or later as more and more sequels hit theaters. But with Saw V only having to overcome a $10.8 million budget, the studio saw itself in the profit margins by the end of Friday afternoon, with the fifth film pulling in $14.1 million on its first day of release. The extra $16.0 million from Saturday and Sunday was icing on Lionsgate’s early Halloween celebration cake. And so is any future box office receipts and its eventual DVD income.
In summary, the five Saw films have cost around $40 million to make altogether. And the films have pulled in $585.3 million worldwide since first hitting theaters five years ago. We’re not even talking about the DVD revenue after the fact.
Take note studios. As long as you keep your budgets very low, you can always continue to produce profitable horror films no matter how tired the genre could seem. John Carpenter produced a little known horror film called Halloween on a budget of just $320,000 and we can see how successful that has been over the years.
The rest of this box office is same as usual. The top two films grossed at least $30 million. The final eight films couldn’t manage $8 million.
20th Century Fox had a 56% drop with Max Payne in its second weekend but again, due to a relatively small $35 million budget, the film isn’t doing half bad for those executives. It pulled in another $7.6 million this weekend on its 3,381 theaters across the nation and now has a domestic gross of $29.6 million after ten days at the box office. They’ve also opened it oversea with the film pulling in another $6.9 mil making for a worldwide gross of $36.5 million. The studio has their budget price tag at just $35 million.
Beverly Hills Chihuahua, the other October release for Walt Disney, is also a success with the film barking up the 4th place with a weekend tally of $6.9 million. While the studio has released no budget, their $78.1 million domestic gross has to be over the budget line. It too is also doing well overseas thus far with a foreign gross of $14.2 million. All told, the talking dogs have grossed $92.4 million worldwide after four weekends of release.
Coming into 5th place is the final debuting wide release of this weekend, Warner Bros.’ Pride & Glory. The studio opened it up in 2,585 theaters this weekend and wound up with $6.3 million in sales receipts. Not the best opening for a film costing $30 million but let’s see how long it can stay in theaters but for accessing the damages here.
Taking up the 6th spot is Fox Searchlight drama The Secret Life of Bees with $5.9 million in sales. Again, the indie distributor kept the budget low at $11 million so its domestic gross of $19.2 million after only ten days of release has them in good territory.
Lionsgate also utilized the same low budget mentality with their release strategy for Oliver Stone’s W. production. The film managed only 7th place for its second weekend with it pulling in another $5.3 million but due to its $25.1 mil budget, they don’t have far to go before they’re fine. After ten days in theaters, the film has a domestic gross of $18.7 million.
Former distribution partners Paramount and DreamWorks are still hanging in there with their D.J. Caruso film Eagle Eye managing $5.1 mil and 8th place this weekend. In five weeks of release, the film has pulled in $87.9 million domestically and another $44.8 million in foreign territories. Altogether, the film has a worldwide gross of $132.7 million and a budget of $80 mil.
The same success story can’t be said for Warner Bros. and director Ridley Scott with his latest film Body of Lies. Contributing to the whole “hands off middle-east storyline” box office poison out of Hollywood these days, the film grabbed 9th place with $4.0 million in its third weekend. Not very hopeful numbers for a film which cost $70 million and has only $30.8 million thus far. They have another $6.3 million overseas.
And the final spot goes to the other horror film out this month, Screen Gems’ Quarantine. The $12 mil-produced film scored another $2.5 mil this weekend and has $28.7 million domestically. Screen Gems has another moderate success on their hands after it’s all said and done.
| Rank | Movie | Weekend | Theaters | Average | Total | Budget |
| 1 | High School Musical 3: Senior Year | $42.0 mil | 3,623 | $11,593 | $42.0 mil | 11 |
| 2 | Saw V | $30.5 mil | 3,060 | $9,967 | $30.5 mil | 10.8 |
| 3 | Max Payne | $7.6 mil | 3,381 | $2,248 | $29.6 mil | 35 |
| 4 | Beverly Hills Chihuahua | $6.9 mil | 3,190 | $2,168 | $78.1 mil | ---- |
| 5 | Pride & Glory | $6.3 mil | 2,585 | $2,447 | $6.3 mil | 30 |
| 6 | The Secret Life of Bees | $5.9 mil | 1,630 | $3,641 | $19.2 mil | 11 |
| 7 | W. | $5.3 mil | 2,050 | $2,600 | $18.7 mil | 25.1 |
| 8 | Eagle Eye | $5.1 mil | 2,558 | $2,008 | $87.9 mil | 80 |
| 9 | Body of Lies | $4.0 mil | 2,150 | $1,891 | $30.8 mil | 70 |
| 10 | Quarantine | $2.5 mil | 2,228 | $1,145 | $28.7 mil | 12 |
On Halloween day, audiences have two new wide choices and some expanding options. Another horror film or Kevin Smith’s latest comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno, though the latter film is getting 800 more prints and has the biggest shot of winning over The Haunting of Molly Hartley.
Clint Eastwood’s Changeling is getting an expansion next weekend with 1,800+ more theaters after pulling in $502,000 this weekend on 15 theaters. Likewise, RockNRolla is finally getting their expansion after three weekends at the box office. The WB is expanding the Guy Ritchie film into 800+ more theaters next weekend.
Then again, it’s likely going to be HSM 3 again at the top spot unless they have a major drop with audiences.
Perhaps next year, the studios can bring about more horror films for their fans in a season which the genre should be winning normally.
Friday October 31, 2008 Releases:
Wide
Zack and Miri Make a Porno (3,000 theaters)
The Haunting of Molly Hartley (2,250 theaters)
Expanding
Changeling (1,800 more theaters)
RockNRolla (800 more theaters)
Limited
Eden Lake
Splinter
The Other End of the Line
The Matador
The First Basket
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Haven't seen a Saw movie since the 2nd one but you have respect the opening weekend for this 5th one. Like Freddy, Jason, etc...we get sick of them and the numbers reflect that. I'm shocked Saw 5 did this well...this means you'll have Saw 6 and more to come. I have to give props where it is due.