Lyriq Bent returns for SAW IV(2007).
© Lionsgate
SAW IV Cuts Out the Competition
By: Jarrod Sarafin, News EditorDate: Sunday, October 28, 2007
It’s been a strange month at the box office for October 2007. Films with high box office expectations either flopped or had average results. Films with moderate-low box office expectations surprised analysts with higher results. Ben Stiller’s team-up with the Farrelly Bros, The Heartbreak Kid, had high expectations from Paramount. Instead, it flopped. Disney and Lionsgate took some box office risks with two films, The Game Plan & Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married, two prospects which centered on niche demographics. Instead, they’re both doing very well in their respective theatrical runs. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the last weekend of this month ends with another surprise of sorts.
The surprise isn’t that Saw IV is #1 this weekend, a time where horror fans are celebrating the genre and Halloween. No, it’s not exactly shocking that it takes the top spot when the only other new competition is counter programming like Dan in Real Life.
The real surprise is how much cash a #1 ranked Saw IV pulled in over this weekend. I don’t think many analysts expected the fourth film in this franchise to perform anywhere near its predecessor, Saw III. The fourth installment pulled in 14.3 million on Friday alone, setting itself up as the Halloween success its previous three films were touted as but it came just shy of the mark set by the third. The third film opened up last Halloween in 3,167 theaters to a 33.6 opening weekend.
The 4th Saw film proved how much a successful product Lionsgate has with their franchise, pulling in 32.1 million on 3,183 theater prints. It had an average of $10, 087 per showing over the Halloween festive weekend. While no budget is yet listed for the film, it’s safe to assume from the budgets of the previous three films, this film is yet another major success for the studio. The third film had the highest budget of the group with 10 mil and like Saw IV, it tripled its budget value on its first weekend of release.
Landing in 2nd place is the alternative programming set by Disney, Dan in Real Life. This film was the only other new wide release of the weekend, opening up in 1,921 theaters and pulling in 12.0 mil as a result. The comedy averaged a respectable $6,288 per showing over the weekend so it seems clear that Disney’s counter-programming plan worked for this release.
Following behind in 3rd place is the returning horror film 30 Days of Night from Columbia Pictures. The vampire horror, based on Steve Niles comic creation, pulled in another 6.7 million over the weekend in 2,859 theaters. The film dropped 58.0% from it debut weekend, setting this film up as a slightly-above-average release. With a budget of 30 mil, it has pulled in 27.3 million over the course of two weekends but the question remains on how much higher it will continue past that mark over the next few weekends.
Disney continues the successful run of The Game Plan by landing in 4th place with a weekend total of 6.2 million. This sports film starring Dwayne Johnson has been out in theaters for five weeks now and this is the first time it hasn’t landed in the top 3 spots. Plan has a domestic gross of 77.0 million domestically while also starting its foreign release this week pulling in another 3.8 million.
The other success for the month of October, Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married, lands right behind in 5th place. While this film isn’t doing as well as The Game Plan, it works in the same small budget context that relates to the Saw franchise, something I’ll go into more detail below. Needless to say, Tyler Perry keeps his budgets very small while appealing to larger audiences, making for some successful box office runs with his films.
In fact, Lionsgate managed both this release and the Saw franchise so they’re the clear winner of October 2007 for intelligent business sense. Small budgets and large profitable margins are the goals of any studio and Lionsgate is excelling at that. Perry’s film pulled in another 5.7 million over this weekend marking a domestic gross of 47.3 mil over the course of its three weeks.
Warner Bros continues its average rate with Michael Clayton pulling 5.0 million over the weekend in 6th place. The budget for this film most likely isn’t very high so its 28.7 mil domestic gross isn’t bad but it’s nothing to celebrate either.
Following behind in 7th place is the latest directorial effort by Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone. Other than the Nightmare Before Christmas re-release, this film had the lowest theatrical release of the group and it shows. The Miramax film pulled in only 3.9 mil in its second week making for a two-week total of only 11.3 million.
While the sports-themed Game Plan scores a success for Disney, Fox Atomic can’t say the same thing for their sports film, The Comebacks. This film opened last weekend clearly losing in 5th place and this weekend, it fared no better in 8th place pulling in only 3.4 million. Over the course of two weeks, its domestic gross sits at only 10.0 mil.
Like 30 Days Of Night, Sony is pulling in slight-above-average numbers for their We Own The Night release. The film only has a budget of 21 million and this weekend’s numbers has its domestic gross at 25.0 mil. Night pulled in another 3.4 mil this weekend, landing in 9th place for its third week of release.
Taking the final spot is the Disney 3-D re-release of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas, a film which pulled in 3.3 mil in only 564 theaters. These kinds of numbers make for the third highest average per showing rate of $5,934. The re-release has pulled in another 10.0 mil in its two weeks of release.
| Rank | Movie | Weekend $ | Theaters | Average | Total $ | Week # |
| 1 | Saw IV | 32.1 mil | 3,183 | $10,087 | 32.1 mil | 1 |
| 2 | Dan in Real Life | 12.0 mil | 1,921 | $6,288 | 12.0 mil | 1 |
| 3 | 30 Days of Night | 6.7 mil | 2,859 | $2,343 | 27.3 mil | 2 |
| 4 | The Game Plan | 6.2 mil | 3,342 | $1,872 | 77.0 mil | 5 |
| 5 | Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married | 5.7 mil | 1,897 | $3,025 | 47.3 mil | 3 |
| 6 | Michael Clayton | 5.0 mil | 2,585 | $1,945 | 28.7 mil | 5 |
| 7 | Gone Baby Gone | 3.9 mil | 1,713 | $2,276 | 11.3 mil | 2 |
| 8 | The Comebacks | 3.4 mil | 2,812 | $1,226 | 10.0 mil | 2 |
| 9 | We Own The Night | 3.4 mil | 2,402 | $1,415 | 25.0 mil | 3 |
| 10 | Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D | 3.3 mil | 564 | $5,934 | 10.0 mil | 2 |
A Franchise That Won’t Quit
Personally, I just could not see this fourth installment performing anywhere near the numbers that it did this weekend. One obvious reason is feedback expectations. For months, online media outlets have published various news and trailers for Saw IV and I’d say nearly every article published encountered negative feedback rather than positive. Obviously, there will always be negative feedback that balances out with the positive on any given topic related to any movie. Over this film, however, expectations and comments were primarily negative. It wasn’t just here at Mania but also at horror genre specific websites. The central focus of this negative feedback seemed to center on one question…
“Why another Saw film?”
With that question in mind along with a number of other criticisms, I thought it was safe to assume this film would win the box office but not with the same kind of numbers attached to its predecessors. Perhaps, the film would continue the poor box office trends of October 2007 pulling in somewhere between 18-24 million.
Clearly, I was wrong. The fourth Saw film pulled in 14.3 million on its first day alone, leaving no question that this franchise just won’t quit. In fact, these types of business numbers pose a different question against the negative feedback…
“Why should the franchise quit?”
There can be no doubt that Lionsgate makes a clear profit with every film in this franchise even if the films themselves only appeal to a niche demographic within the horror genre. I’ll put up the chart below for these Saw films. Look at their budgets and look at their numbers which point to very clear profit margins for the distributor. Other studios are struggling right now to overcome their budgets with poor October box office results. Universal’s The Kingdom had a budget of 70 million and yet in 5 weeks of release, it has grossed only 45.9 million. Considering that it didn’t land in the top 10 this weekend and it’s being pulled out of theaters, it’s safe to assume the thriller will not overcome its budget.
At the same time, small budgeted films like these Saw films are making triple their budgets in the first weekend alone.
| Movie | Budget | Opening $ | Domestic $ | Foreign $ | Total $ | Release Date |
| Saw | 1.2 mil | 18.2 mil | 55.1 mil | 47.9 mil | 103.0 mil | 10/29/04 |
| Saw II | 4 mil | 31.7 mil | 87.0 mil | 60.7 mil | 147.7 mil | 10/28/05 |
| Saw III | 10 mil | 33.6 mil | 80.2 mil | 84.6 mil | 164.8 mil | 10/27/06 |
| Saw IV | 10 mil range | 32.1 mil | 32.1 so far | n/a yet | 32.1 mil so far | 10/26/07 |
Yes, one thing seems very clear. It doesn’t matter how much criticism centers around these types of horror-torture films, they will continue as long as they make good business sense for Lionsgate and other studios.
It’s now time for your thoughts…
One last note:
Next week’s box office should be interesting. We have bankable Oscar-winning thespians Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe starring in the Ridley Scott film, American Gangster. On the exact opposite side of targeted demographics, we have a film which appeals to a much wider audience in Bee Movie.
For obvious reasons, the Bee adventure has the sizeable advantage here. It’s going to be playing in at least 500 more theaters with a shorter running time, guaranteeing more showings per day on more prints than Scott’s film.
Friday November 2, 2007 Releases:
Wide Releases
Bee Movie (3,500 Theaters)
American Gangster (3,000+ Theaters)
Martian Child (2,000 Theaters)
Limited Releases
Darfur Now
Diva
Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
I did see 30 Days of Night. I enjoyed it even though it had nonactor Josh Hartnett in the lead role. Does this guy show any emotion or have any charisma? His popularity, if you can call it that, escapes me. Still, the film was pretty frightening though nothing new to the genre. At least it was R rated which meant no screaming kids to distract you. That what makes me weary of Bee Movie. Do I really want to go to a movie with all that? Even if I go on a school day, you know some idiot will bring preschoolers who don't know how to behave in a movie theater. American Gangster is definitely on my list of must see. Things are looking up for movies after a ho-hum past two monthes.