'Paranormal Activity 3' freakishly successful with $54 million opening weekend

By Sarah Sluis

Paranormal Activity 3 was this weekend's success story, earning $54 million and the title of biggest fall weekend. The horror franchise appears to have taken the mantle from the Saw franchise, which had a seven-movie run before sitting out the Halloween season this year. Rotten Tomatoes critics rated the movie 71% positive, which is high for a horror movie, and especially a horror sequel. Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the directing duo behind Sundance documentary splash Catfish, which critic Maitland McDonagh called a "master class in blurring the line between fiction and documentary," applied their skills to the found footage-styled film with aplomb. The third installment will likely pass $100 million, the same as the first movie, and ensure there will be a Paranormal Activity 4 next Halloween.

Last year, Warner Bros. and Summit both had plans for a movie about the three musketeers, but Summit's Three Musketeers 3D won the game of chicken by speeding up production and shifting forward the release date to April 2011 (Well, that didn't happen). But it appears Warner Bros. and would-be director Doug Liman may have the last laugh, because Summit's swashbuckling drama debuted to just $8.8 million. Overseas, audiences were more receptive, but in the U.S. the movie found support only among older male viewers.

Americans don't always get the British sense of humor, so it's no wonder the English spy comedy Johnny English Reborn fell flat in front of U.S. audiences, barely ticking up to $3.8 million. Canadians, a former colony who still share the Queen with England, were more receptive to the antics of Rowan Atkinson, showing above-average receipts.

The market for faith-based movies like Courageous and The Blind Side has been hot, but that doesn't mean every God-inflected film is a winner. The Mighty Macs, which combines faith and sports, opened with just $1.1 million. Meanwhile, Courageous finished four spots higher even though it's in its fourth week, earning $2.5 million.

Opening on the wide side for a specialty film with 56 screens, Margin Call finished with $582,000, a few times the average Wall Street bonus. The drama, which centers on a critical 24 hours early in the financial crisis, has topicality on its side.

A movie about a cult and starring a previously unknown Olsen sister? Count me in. Sundance favorite Martha Marcy May Marlene averaged $35,000 per screen at four locations, a sign the indie will play well in coming weeks. Though it doesn't have much publicity, the documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey finished with $25,000 on its single screen, which probably would make Elmo himself shriek with glee. The movie has played very well on the festival circuit, so perhaps tiny distributor Submarine Deluxe can turn the movie's great opening weekend into a sustained, high-grossing run.

This Friday, the sci-fi offering In Time goes up against Johnny Depp in The Rum Diary and what's sure to be a CG-animated behemoth, Puss in Boots.