'The Devil Inside' stakes a spot against holiday holdovers

By Sarah Sluis

The only new release this weekend in The Devil Inside (2,285 theatres), a documentary-style horror flick. The rather catchy marketing campaign, which shows scared audiences watching the movie inside a church, borrows from Paranormal Activity. Last night I saw a commercial with night cameras trained on cast members of "Jersey Shore" frightened by the movie. While Paramount is trying its hardest to sell the movie to young moviegoers, they may be in for an unwelcome surprise. Critic Willie Waffle reports that his audience jeered through the ending, it was that bad. Horror movie lovers be warned: This movie has just a 6% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, an opening weekend of up to $10 million is expected.

The holdovers Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows should continue to reign over the box office. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy will expand into 809 theatres this week and should crack the top ten. The spy thriller has been earning close to $20,000 per screen in 55 theatres, so even a fraction of that average will give the picture millions. In the dailies, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been catching up to the two leading actioners, so this weekend could narrow the gap even more.

Although finding Roadie on VOD may be easy, it will be much harder to find it playing in a theatre. However, critic Doris Toumarkine's review suggests this "terrific contemporary drama" is worth seeking out. Critic Erica Abeel recommends the feature version of Murakami's book Norwegian Wood. "Fans of the director [Tran Anh Hung] and novelist won't want to miss this intriguing, if flawed, adaptation," she concludes.

On Monday, we'll see if The Devil Inside managed to bring audiences to the dark side and which holiday releases have the most holding power.