saw v Tagged Articles at Cinematical

This one is for the increasingly few of you who have steadfastly stuck with the Saw franchise through thick-and-thin in the aughts. The opening weekend numbers for Saw VI are the weakest since the first film, mostly thanks to some stiff competition from breakout hit Paranormal Activity. But box-office returns aren't everything. So: what'd you think?

I wrote this little piece before the release of Saw V last year, in the mode of a frustrated fan hoping for a revitalized franchise. It didn't happen; Saw V was boring and incomprehensible, and I was ready to skip the sixth film altogether. Then it got some decent reviews, and I thought what the hell. I'm glad I did. Saw VI, which sees editor Kevin Greutert take over directing duties, is easily the best Saw movie since the third. That may not be the most enthusiastic bit of praise I've ever issued, but miracle of miracles: the fifth sequel to a half-decent horror flick is legitimately pretty good. Here's how I think Saw got some of its bite back:

• Thriller momentum. For the first time in three years, a Saw movie is exciting, in an old-fashioned what-happens-next sort of way. There are creative traps a-plenty -- some of the most ingenious ones in the series, for those who are into that sort of thing -- but the film doesn't depend on them: it has a semblance of a protagonist, and a story that moves forward, and draws you in, and makes the 90 minutes feel like less. Which is related to my next point, namely:

City of Ember
This is the film that our Jette Kernion said is "one of the most gorgeous-looking films I've seen this year" (2008). It's the tale of a city in darkness -- a community that houses the likes of Saoirse Ronan, Tim Robbins, and Martin Landau, and is led by none other than Bill Murray. If thoughts of the future and rousing family fare are your cup of tea: Buy It on DVD. Sadly, there's no Blu-ray at this time.

Repo! The Genetic Opera
Unfortunately, this rock opera didn't live up to some expectations. But nevertheless, we're talking about a flick that had the cojones to cast Paris Hilton, and gave many rabid Buffy fans the opportunity to see Anthony Head belt out lyrics once again. Rent it, on DVD or Blu-ray, if you can handle a little blood and rock beats.

Max Payne
It came, it screened, it died. Max Payne was the action movie without action, the video game adaptation with serious plot changes. Perhaps in the right hands this still could have meant something amazing, but as it is, Payne fizzled. Skip it on DVD and Blu-ray. Elisabeth Rappe has a review of the DVD right here.

For a franchise that's more than 45 years old, Bond is on one hell of a kick. Ever since Pierce Brosnan took over in 1995, every James Bond film has grossed more than the last, and that trend will continue with Quantum of Solace. The awkwardly-titled 22nd film in the franchise beat the previous Bond opening weekend record -- held, actually, by Die Another Day, which was eventually passed by Casino Royale later in its release -- by, oh, $23 million. Quantum's $70.4 million bow is also the third highest opening of 2008, behind only Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Dark Knight.

And that, actually, is pretty much all there is to report for the wide releases, since Quantum of Solace scared everyone else off the date. Last weekend's winners, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Role Models both held up well, with the former pulling ahead of Wall-E. The Secret Life of Bees hangs around at #8, proving to be a fall sleeper. Saw V will, as expected, finish just behind its immediate predecessor.

The full list of estimates, after the jump.

When filling out the box office chart that's below the fold, I accidentally mistyped Madagascar as Badagascar. I didn't mean it. Of this decade's slew of random non-Pixar talking-animal cartoons, Madagascar and Happy Feet are far and away the best, so I'm glad that the former, at least, is now a bona fide franchise. (There were rumors of a second Happy Feet, but that project seems to have stalled.) Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa opened to a huge $63.5 million this weekend, a $16 million improvement on its 2005 predecessor. Animated films' staying power is unpredictable (though generally stronger than average), but $175 million seems assured and $250 million is not out of the question.

Role Models' $19 million opening is less ginormous, but no less notable. For an R-rated comedy with no real stars and no franchise behind it, that's a major coup. I suspect word-of-mouth will help the film in the weeks to come.

Soul Men, on the other hand, failed to capitalize on the cache of Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac. Black audiences would have turned out in droves for the feel-good comedy. Lionsgate would have gone to town with it.

With last weekend's box office hit on account of Halloween falling on Friday, this weekend's drop figures -- save Saw V's -- looked pretty good across the board. Most notably, people seem to be responding well to Clint Eastwood's Changeling, which held on to fourth place without much of a screen count jump.

The full estimates after the jump.

If you woke up this Saturday and looked at the box office returns from Friday, you probably noticed something strange. Saw V was cheerfully occupying the top spot despite having slid a whopping 78% from the previous Friday. Last weekend's winner, High School Musical 3, was sitting at number five with $1.7 million, a 90% drop. Ninety percent? What the hell is going on here?

Then you probably thought about it for a second and palm-smacked your forehead. Friday, of course, was October 31st, which meant that virtually all of HSM's target audience was out trick-or-treating. Some comparatively smaller percentage of Saw fans was out partying, or whatever it is the kids are doing these days. HSM recovered admirably, leapfrogging back into first, but Halloween still hurt: that 65% drop isn't great for a kidflick, though it's more in line with the pattern of eagerly awaited franchise sequels. We'll see what happens next week.

As for Saw V, it's currently running about $5 million behind its immediate predecessor, although the Halloween Friday took its toll here too -- it's probably fair to call them even at this point. Even if Saw V continues the franchise's declining trend, it's still a cash cow. My guess is we'll see a couple more theatrical sequels, and then infinite direct-to-DVD entries. Jigsaw will never die.

There were some newcomers. Zack and Miri Make a Porno's $10.7 million take was roughly in line with Kevin Smith's best showings; only 2001's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back fared better, and barely at that. (It's probably worth noting that this is also by far the worst opening for a film starring Seth Rogen.) Changeling respectably, if unspectacularly, expanded to 1,850 screens, landing in fourth with $9.4 million. That would be more auspicious if the film were expected to be an awards player, but that doesn't seem to be the case. The Haunting of Molly Hartley, a horror offering for the tween set, actually managed an okay $6 million -- not bad when you don't even have a real distributor.

The full estimates after the jump.

The top two films at the box office this weekend couldn't be more different -- which might help explain why both had such strong starts. The third film in the Disney Channel's wholesome, wildly popular High School Musical franchise, and the first to hit theaters, had a $42 million debut, and will go on to be at least as wildly profitable as its predecessors. $30.5 million for Saw V is basically in line with its three immediate predecessors, all of which had first weekends between $31 and $33 million. The films' final grosses have been steadily declining since the second film, however, with the most recent entry dropping like a rock and managing only $63 million total. We'll see if that trend continues. I'd say, though, that this debut guarantees a sixth Saw for next Halloween. As Eric wrote yesterday, it is now the most lucrative horror franchise in film history.

The only other new wide release this weekend was Pride & Glory, which New Line more or less dumped. It did a predictably weak $6.3 million, good enough for fifth place.

Oliver Stone's W. took a big hit, as the people who needed to see it apparently saw it last weekend. It dropped nearly 50%, with a $25-28 million finish looking likely. Max Payne held up even worse after last week's strong debut. Meanwhile, two films from the early fall doldrums continue to emerge as success stories: Eagle Eye and Beverly Hills Chihuahua are both still hanging around, and both looking to reach $100 million before all is said and done.

In 20th place, Clint Eastwood's Changeling made a strong limited bow: half a million on fifteen screens, for $33,000 per screen. It goes wide next week. A bit further down, the annual rerelease of Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D couldn't do much business, ending up with $372,000 on almost 300 screens.

The full estimates after the jump.

When you shelled out nine bucks this weekend to see if Jigsaw would do anything new in Saw V (answer: nope), you were also contributing to a milestone. With the Friday-Sunday $30 million haul, the Saw series is now the highest grossing horror franchise in history, with a cumulative domestic gross of $316 million. Just think of all the microcassette tapes and countdown timers that kind of money could buy!

Of course, the other heavy hitters in this field -- Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street -- were mostly released in the 1980s, when movie tickets were a lot cheaper. It's no surprise that a franchise launched in the 2000s would be more lucrative. Still, Saw has made its loot in just five films, compared to Elm Street's eight (including Freddy vs. Jason), Halloween's nine (including last year's remake), and Friday the 13th's eleven (including Freddy vs. Jason again).

A curious fact: Prior to this weekend, the race was surprisingly close. Box Office Mojo has the Friday the 13th series at $315 million, Elm Street at $307 million, and Halloween at $275 million. (Lionsgate's press release touting the Saw achievement has the Halloween series at $307 million, but I don't know where they're getting that from.)

But Jigsaw shouldn't rest on his laurels just yet. The Friday the 13th reboot due in February is liable to put Jason Voorhees in the lead again, although that will be short-lived if the seemingly inevitable Saw VI does indeed appear next October. If the Friday remake is successful, though, it could lead to more sequels and more competition. Personally, I'd rather have a mute, hockey-masked punisher as the all-time box office champ over a cancer-brained faux-intellectual who can't shut up. But that's just me! You can vote however you want. In the meantime, congrats to Saw for out-grossing Freddy, Michael, and Jason, and congrats to me for not making a pun on the word "grossing."

The advertising promises "You won't believe how it ends," but the problem with Saw V isn't so much its ending, it's everything that comes before. Oddly toothless, the entire flick feels like it exists solely as preamble for Saw VI. The greatest tension I felt was waiting for the movie to begin. I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and then the end credits began to roll and I realized the movie had, in fact, ended. As one of the characters says, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

The last installment, Saw IV, was both an origin story and a mild-tempered reboot of the series. Writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton (Feast) endeavored to provide deeper motivation for the Jigsaw Killer, AKA John Kramer (Tobin Bell), by introducing his ex-wife, Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell), and explaining that it was her tragic miscarriage years in the past that eventually set him on his deadly path. Jigsaw died at the end of Saw III, so Saw IV also had to resurrect him somehow, which was achieved by making the events of Saw IV concurrent with those of Saw III and introducing a new successor, Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), to carry on Jigsaw's "work."

Got that? I know, it's already way too complicated, which is one of the reasons Saw IV was such a drag; it felt like a dry police procedural interrupted by brief scenes of screaming torture. But hold on, because Saw V insists on revisiting the events of the first four films, this time inserting Jigsaw's successor as he is trained for the work ahead. I felt like I was watching Forrest Gump or Zelig, with some fictional phony inserted into historical events.

Of last week's four new releases the video game inspired Max Payne took top honors with The Secret Life of Bees and W. taking third and fourth place respectively. Bees, incidentally, had the highest per screen average of the week. Sex Drive took in only $3.6 million, taking ninth for the weekend.

1. Max Payne: $17.6 million
2. Beverly Hills Chihuahua: $11.4 million
3. The Secret Life of Bees: $10.5 million
4. W.: $10.5 million
5. Eagle Eye: $7 million

Three new releases and one re-release this week:

High School Musical 3: Senior Year
What's It All About: This third installment of the popular series brings the clean cut musical shenanigans to the big screen. It's senior year, and a group of friends reflect upon their past and future as they prepare for their last Spring musical together.
Why It Might Do Well: This one comes with a built in fan base and a huge release. Definitely the number one move next week.
Why It Might Not Do Well: How can you ask that? Have you no soul?
Number of Theaters: 3,400
Prediction: $45 million

Though I doubt this'll be news to anyone already psyched for this film (of which there are many some?), it looks like this Thursday night brings with it a marathon of the Saw series at select AMC locations (the list is after the jump), leading up to the midnight premiere of Saw V.

I actually took part last year (the first for the event, I believe), having felt a need to dust off #1 and brush up on #3, and having had no great qualms at sitting through #2 (my favorite to date), all for the same one-time admission. The cost has been bumped up to $15 this year, but that's still a relative bargain for all the bone-cracking action you can stand.

It was an exhausting effort to go eight straight hours, let me assure you, and one that I don't see myself repeating this year to the count of ten. I've admitted my franchise fatigue elsewhere, so leave it to Scott to be a bit more positive about the prospect of this weekend's second-most horrifying new release (that's right, HSM fans, I'm talking to you).

[Thanks to Fangoria for the theater listings.]