So much for the sophomore slump. Paramount’s Paranormal Activity 2 frightened away its competition and registered a quite supernatural $20.1 million on Friday, according to early estimates. That number includes the $6.3 million the horror sequel earned from Thursday midnight screenings — a late-night record for an R-rated movie. Paramount had been cautiously forecasting Paranormal 2 to match the $21.1 million its predecessor grossed on its wide-release debut, but the sequel now seems headed for a weekend tally of $40 million. Not too shabby for a film with a $3 million budget.
Jackass 3D, also a Paramount release, dropped 66 percent from last Friday for an estimated grab of $7.6 million. While that may seem like a particularly steep drop, the stunt film’s business was front-loaded last weekend as Jackass enthusiasts stormed theaters on opening day. Jackass 3D should finish the weekend around $23 million, for a more sensible drop of about 55 percent. The gray-haired actioner Red landed in third place, falling only 38 percent for $4.5 million. In fourth place was Clint Eastwood’s drama Hereafter, which expanded into 2,181 theaters and grossed $4.1 million. The $50 million film, which stars Matt Damon as a psychic who communicates with the dead, will likely wind up with a bit more than $12 million for the weekend. And in fifth place, The Social Network kept chugging along with $2.3 million — a scant 32 percent drop from last weekend. Check back here on Sunday for the complete box office report.
1. Paranormal Activity 2 — $20.1 mil
2. Jackass 3D — $7.6 mil
3. Red — $4.5 mil
4. Hereafter — $4.1 mil
5. The Social Network — $2.3 mil
Box Office Preview: ‘Paranormal Activity 2′ attempts to scare its way into first place
More Paranormal Activity 2 from EW: Katie Featherston exclusive Q&A
Most theaters started showing the film at 10pm Thursaday night, like many posters have pointed out. Can we PLEASE get some authenticity on the stats before you writers have to back track and say whatever statistics are voided since the money didn’t all just come from Midnight screenings on Thursday!? Thanks!
The Regal theatres which also includes Edwards, Signature and United Artist, opted to show the movie at 10 pm rather then midnight.. So in a way, it’s still consider part of the “record breaking” gross, even though it wasnt technically shown at midnight
The 10pm showings are the same as the midnights. The studio let theaters open a little earlier since some theaters were showing the first Paranormal at 8pm followed by the sequel.
This is the equivalent of a Baseball star hitting more home-runs than previous record holders… only to find out they’ve been juicing up. 10PM is not Midnight, any kindergartener knows that (except when its 10PM Mountain time, I suppose it IS midnight Eastern time…) So put on asterisk behind that claim of record breaker.
Who cares, do you have some kind of stake how much it makes on the first night?
What does it matter? It’s still gonna make a lot of money whether it is counted at 10 or midnight
Agreed. I saw a 10pm Thurs eve show.
Another movie underestimated by EW.
Terrible movie. For the easily scared.
fear is relative
This was an awesome scary movie! Hollywood is doing such a great job lately. Keep em’ coming, Tinsel Town!
You’re doing good work, whoever this is. Keep it up!
I’m not wearing pants.
I like turtles.
I stabbed a guy with a trident.
This is my brother Larry. This is my other brother Larry. We find each other very attractive.
I steal forks from restaurants.
I love remakes, sequels, and reboots! It’s the best stuff that Hollywood is making lately!
I loved PA2, the ending was the only thing that kept it from being better than it’s predecessor! Overall good job Paramount! This is the first sequel to a scary movie that I haven’t hated!
It was pretty decent until the ending. It’s like they said, “Oh, it’s been 87 minutes, gotta end the movie in 3 minutes.” Also (SPOILER ALERT OF SORTS although it’s in one of the trailers) I thought that the inclusion of the photo somewhat cheapened the scariness that it represented in the first movie.
I loved the movie and didn’t mind the ending. I take that back…I LIKED the ending but I can’t say why without posting a big spoiler and I won’t do that. I did hear some complaints about it in the theater but to each his own.
I liked the last 5 minutes of the ending… but not the very, very, very end, if you know what I mean.
I very much enjoyed the movie… 2 puzzies (dudes) screamed and yelled and jumped throughout the movie, but then at the end proclaimed, “That was stupid! Let’s tell (so and so) not to bother.” LMAO! I’m thinking that’s what a lot of posts are… People who jumped like crazy and now are saying they didn’t.
Have you seen Evil Dead 2?
This movie was scary but i think the first one was waaaaay scarier and it had more view of the bad sprits..paranormal activity 2 was ok but it needed more flavor because mostly all the scary stuff happened at the end and it really didnt make sense with the water cleaner moving all the time what did that had to do with the movie? but it was cool
The water cleaner scenes were really dumb – never made any point.
It was the only part I thought was a waste of time.
before any one asks.. Yes, the dog is alright, but the baby is a gonner.. Man, talk about a lame a$$ plot twist
Dude, spoiler much? What an ass…
This movie SUCKED. (didn’t even see it to the end.) it was just Paranormal Activity 1 with different actors… and the first paranormal activity was boring as hell.
Yet you went to see the second one after the first one was boring as hell. Oh well, they still got your money.
I don’t get it either! Why see a sequel when you hated the first one?!
Its what i told this kid behind me as i was exiting the movie. He said this movie was better than the 1st but still sucked. I said then why come see the second one if you didn’t like the first one? Because he was a closet fan and didn’t want to admit it.
According to these opinions, it seems that half of the gross, $10 million, came from people who say they hated the first one but went to see the 2nd one anyway. Bring on part 3!!! hahaha.. idiots.
Liar.
Who would ever go to number 2 when you hated number 1? TROLL, we see your beard and warts.
all I got from these crappy movies is that regular white people are so damn boring
Take your racist hate-speech elsewhere! Do not pollute the young minds of America with such evil.
Wouldn’t surprise me if it started dropping off quickly today and tomorrow.
No, it ain’t the Saw franchise.
The same idiots saying the first sucked went ahead and saw the sequel, I noticed last night.
Anyway, I thought that it was a vast improvement over the original which didn’t impress me nearly as much, good movie, nothing amazing, but it was good, and the first still impresses me due to how it was done, the means.
For the record, I’d have this be number 1 than Saw 3D next weekend.
for the record, you’re an idiot!
I agree with m1. Saw 3d is going to just be the same thing.
I would rather have a movie like Paranormal Activity be #1 than Saw. I think the only Saw movie I have ever liked was the original one. It all started going downhill after that.
I saw the first one through rifftrax (it’s like watching paint dry in Satan’s house) and I enjoyed it.. Can’t wait to watch this one on dvd and with rifftrax too
I don’t get why people get so caught up in the box office results. It’s interesting to read from a business point of view, but many commentors act like they’ve got a stake in the results. Odd.
Most of the time, people are interested because box office results can be a good way of seeing what kinds of movies will be made in the future. Take, for instance, how well Christopher Nolan’s Batman films did at the box office. Had they not done so well, maybe he wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to make a risky film like Inception (which had a rather large budget). Maybe a studio wouldn’t have been so eager to let him make a film with such a big budget had he not yet shown that he could ably handle a large-scale film and bring people to the theater doing so.
Hollywood studios follow the trends for what is going to make them money. If the trend is something that I don’t like, then I get upset, because that could mean that the types of films I do like won’t be made as often because studios won’t have faith that they will make money. So in a way, anyone who loves movies does have somewhat of a stake in box office results.
Did anyone else notice that they had the same actors from paranormal activity 1?
That’s the point idiot. Paranormal Activity 2 takes place before and after Paranormal Activity 1. Obviously you weren’t watching.
They even reference this during the movie. Very hard to miss.
I love that “PA2″ was both a pre-quel AND a sequel… Clever.