'Paranormal Activity 4' loses steam in fourth outing

This fall has been filled with weekends unexpectedly good (the $50 million opening of Taken 2) and bad (the week The Possession opened was off 38% from the previous year). Underperforming openings meant the box office this year was just slightly up from last year. Paranormal Activity 4 placed first this weekend with $30.2 million. For a horror movie budgeted at just $5
million, that's great, but Paranormal 2 debuted to $ 40.7 million and Paranormal 3 to $50.2 million, making this the first sequel to open lower, not higher. Just because the opening of Paranormal Activity 4 was 40% off the opening of the third film isn't necessarily a bad thing. The Saw franchise has had seven movies to date, and it peaked at the second film. Movies three through seven trended downward. In its favor, Paranormal Activity 4 still has one more pre-Halloween weekend to take advantage of. There will be more competition, in the form of Open Road's Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, but that horror sequel doesn't have nearly as much awareness or marketing support.

Tyler Perry may want to hang up his FBI badge, because Alex Cross opened to just $11.5 million, the star's worst opening ever. It's also under the previous two James Patterson adaptations starring Morgan Freeman that released over a decade ago. Perry fans did show up, as evidenced by the
demographic breakdown: 74% black, 60% women, and 68% over the age of 35. However, Patterson's fans, which tend to be older and skew white, did not turn out, a big miss. People who did show up gave the movie an "A" rating, so perhaps the problems was with the movie's marketing, not the movie itself.

Fox Searchlight's Sundance Film Festival pickup, The Sessions, opened to $30,000 per screen in four locations. The story of a man paralyzed with polio who resolves to lose his virginity has been met with a generally positive critical reception. It's the kind of film that builds momentum with positive word-of-mouth,

so its performance in coming weeks will be telling.

While none of the new wide releases opened as big as expected, it was a great week for holdovers. Argo dipped just 15% to earn another $16.6 million. That's the best hold for a wide release action movie outside of the holiday season ever. While the opening of Argo was below star/director Ben Affleck's previous outing, The Town, Argo has now regained the lead and is tracking ahead of the bank robbery movie.

In third place, Hotel Transylvania held on strong with just a 21% dip to $13.5 million. Taken 2 was right behind, falling 38% for another $13.4 million. That was enough to bring the Liam Neeson-led movie over the $100 million mark. After a soft opening, Here Comes the Boom showed strength by losing just 28% of its audience for another $8.5 million. Finally, Pitch Perfect went down just 24% to earn another $7 million. The under-the-rader comedy never rose above third place, but it could be in the top ten for another week or two thanks to its strong holds week after week.

This Friday, the Halloween-themed comedy Fun Size will open, along with surfing movie Chasing Mavericks, the ambitious literary adaptation of Cloud Atlas, and horror pick Silent Hill: Revelation 3D.

'Paranormal Activity 4' prepares to scare away the competition

The found-footage style showcased in Paranormal Activity 4 (3,412 theatres) is far from played out. In fact, the style is popping up in other horror movies, action movies (Chronicle), and epidemic movies (The Bay), to name a few examples. But when it comes to the Paranormal franchise itself, THR's Justin Lowe feels the filmmakers "seem short
on new ideas, relying more on the series’
reputation for
low-budget thrills to attract audiences." Still, "it’s unlikely
that anything will stop the first few waves of fans" from turning out through Halloween. Paramount predicts the release will end up in the high $30 million range. That would be a bit down from the third outing's $52 million opening, and more in line with Paranormal Activity 2's $40 million opening. The studio has been smart about keeping production costs low. With a reported budget of $5 million, the release will be pure gravy for the distributor.

Tyler Perry has his first starring role in a movie he did not direct in Alex Cross (2,539 theatres). He plays the eponymous character, an FBI profiler. Morgan Freeman last played Cross in Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. The crime-suspenser has the potential to attract both Perry's fans
and readers of the source material, James Patterson's novels. However, Perry's fans are most loyal to his Madea character, so that may dampen the grosses a bit. It doesn't help that FJI critic Daniel Eagan didn't feel Perry was "a comfortable fit" for the role, describing him as a "lumbering screen presence who
is better at projecting teary-eyed sincerity than brutal, vengeful
anger." Plus, the "slapdash plotting, nonsensical
action and inept pacing" could make viewing the feature more of a trial than a mindless pleasure. A number in the teen millions would be a good showing for Alex Cross.

This week's specialty pick is The Sessions (4 theatres). Charming, sweet, and gentle, the based-
on-a-true-story movie follows a man (John Hawkes) who was paralyzed by polio and lives part of the day in an iron long. After receiving the blessing of his priest (William H. Macy), he goes on a quest to lose his virginity with the help of a sexual surrogate (Helen Hunt). The film festival darling also pleased critic David Noh, who praises the movie for "possessing vast amounts of humor and humanity."

On Monday, we'll see if audiences still want to be scared by Paranormal Activity 4 and if enough viewers turned out for Alex Cross. The Sessions, an awards hopeful, may receive a nice dose of buzz if it has a strong debut.