The wild rumpus has begun, as Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are stomped the box office competition on Friday, according to early estimates. The adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s beloved children’s book grossed $11.9 million on its first day. The key question now is how much will Wild Things rise on Saturday? A significant jump on Saturday would indicate that families are embracing the PG movie, while a tiny uptick may signal that its support is mainly coming from hip teens and adults who were raised on the book. Landing in second place was the revenge thriller Law Abiding Citizen, which took out $7.7 million. Paranormal Activity, the cult horror movie made on a shoestring budget of $11,000, continued to terrify the numerous moviegoers eager to see it. In only 760 theaters, the film grossed $6.7 million for a staggering per-screen average of $8,754. Friday’s figures are below, and check back here on Sunday for the complete box office report.
1. Where the Wild Things Are — $11.9 mil
2. Law Abiding Citizen — $7.7 mil
3. Paranormal Activity — $6.7 mil
4. Couples Retreat — $5.8 mil
5. The Stepfather — $4.3 mil
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Paranormal Activity has to be the worst “movie” I’ve seen in the last ten years. Unlikable frat boy/girl characters, terrible acting, no semblance of rhythym or pacing, contrived occurences, and a maddeningly boring pace. No sense of slow build tension or terror at all. It’s truly a shame when a movie like Drag Me to Hell is swept underneath the rug and this movie thrives.
Yeah, Paranormal Activity is a huge disappointment. It’s so underdeveloped and the “scares” so predictable, you’ll get more scares if you just stay home and watch one of those “true ghost story” documentaries they show all the time on the Biography Channel and the History Channel. And while these shows have bargain-basement budgets as well, you’ll still probably get better special effects, pacing, and basic storytelling from them. What IS effective in Paranormal Activity is the advertising, so if you’re a fan of P.T. Barnum, have at it. Everybody else might want to save their money for a better movie.
Paranormal Activity has more going for it than the above posts delude. It’s pacing is perfect..reminiscent of ‘Diabolique’. The acting and writing connect with young audiences. Last night’s audience in Monterey California was tuned into this film like none other I have seen this year. It’s much better than “Blair Witch Project”.. a guy with a camera setting up to ..catch a demon. Amazing filmmaking, writing, acting and editing.
i have seen almost every horror film in existence and consider myself a movie buff – a horror movie buff even more so – and “paranormal activity” is hands down the scariest movie i’ve seen in a theater in a long time. we watched it in a sold out theater and everyone screamed/jumped out of their seats and applauded when it was over. those dissing the film are dissing the concept of the film and should have gotten over that ten years ago when the also brilliant “blair witch” came out of nowhere and was a huge success. I also loved “drag me to hell” but i think it was too silly to appeal to general audiences. it wasn’t “evil dead” but it was fun.
Blair Witch is merely a gimmick that didn’t work due to Heather Donahue’s God-awful performance. I didn’t believe for a moment that Heather’s character would film the experience. She played the part as someone who would just lay down and crumble. And while Blair Witch was able to use hype on its side, that hype turned into hatred for the film very, very quickly. About the only good thing that I can say about Paranormal Activity is that at least another Saw movie won’t be the most hyped film of the Halloween.
I just want to point out the hyperbole: I doubt very much that you’ve seen “almost every horror film in existence.” This would have required you to watch WORLD horror cinema–not to mention the countless sub-genres–nearly non-stop for many years. I’ve been a horror buff since the age of ten; I’m now 38. I’ve seen too many horror films to count, from all over the world, and I know I *still* haven’t even touched the surface of what is out there.
Truly a beautiful film about the world through a child’s eyes. Too bad Michael Jackson isn’t still alive, he could have sat in the back of the theater and pulled a Pee Wee Herman.
Dude, sick…..grow man man, WFT. I am not a Jackson fan or anything at all, but that was a dumb comment.
Absolutely agree with Andy! Gross comment by HP and he thinks he’s better than Pee Wee?
Well Harry, I thought your joke was funny, some folks take things too seriously. But don’t worry, wherever Michael Jackson’s spirit is now, I’m sure he was watching Where The Wild Things Are, and rubbing one out.
wtf man?
@ Harry Peters
You sound like you are the real pedophile. Who reads a review and has an image of PeeWee Herman in his head? Only a pervert like you. I hope you are on the sex offender registry, you pervert. Eww!
I would never see the Remake of the 1987 movie Stepfather.Thats something I wouldnt see at all.
yo samantha: all movies these days are either remakes or based on books. these dumb ass movie script writers can’t think of something original. i could come up with five different movies that have nothing to do with a book or another movie in the time it takes for them to think of an idea for at least one.
Ok Emma. Let’s hear it. 5 original movie ideas! Starting -NOW-
The clock is ticking.
“Law Abiding Citizen”, although implausible, was a pretty good flick.
Both Butler and Foxx were good in their roles! I still have yet to see “Paranormal Activity”, though!
Where the Wild Things Are is one of the best of the year-such a beautiful and exciting movie.
Paranormal Activity is also great; I think it’s scarier once you leave the theater and really think about what you saw.
Whwre the wild things are could have done better. How much money did it take to make it? Let’s hope not much, because critics make the movie sound like it made more than $11.9 million dollars.
Honestly I can say that I have been a horror fan since the 70’s. I can proudly say that I have stuck by this genre for many years of my life and this little flick Paranormal Activity was probably one of the very few horror films that has gotten under my skin. It was true relentless horror, that questioned whether or not stuff like this could actually happen. It was suspenseful, without using buckets of gore, and it had actual scares! Not just cheap scares but moments that made you cringe in your seat, it truly got in my head and apparently the audiences head as most of them were screaming from start to finish. This film deserves all the success and is hands down one of the best horror films of this decade!
Wow. Law Abiding Citizen. Congrats Where the Wild Things Are.
@harry peters, dude, you have failed miserably with your attempt at making a shocking joke, it was not funny at all.. a better joke would be something like this: 2 weeks from now, “where the wild things are” will share the IMAX screen with michael jackson’s “this is it” .. I guess you could say mj will be happy to play along side a young boy once more
As a rabid horror fan, I can honestly say that Paranormal Activity is THE scariest movie that I have seen in years. The tension gets to you so much that you want to take your skin off when it’s over. Anybody that trashes it had to have gone in expecting something other than what it is. I loved it. Oh, also saw Where The Wild Things Are and thought it was just OK. My 12 year old loved it but I must have missed something.
Too bad Law Abiding Citizen came in second, it looks really really bad, not to mention the two turds playing the lead roles.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say I wrote this comment. There aren’t many celebrities I would actually say I hate, but Foxx and Butler are among those elite few.
You don’t talk about a Spartan that way. This is Sparta !!!!!!
Here is a summary of Paranormal Activity: Couple likes each other, act funny and relatable to the audience, set up a camera in their house, door moves, blanket moves, various noises, steps, frame cracks, she moves, she kills. The end. There. I saved you all ten dollars. The people who say this movie is even remotely good are seriously delusional and have bought into the hype machine like lemmings. It’s no wonder abysmal trite like this movie make 16 mill.
And no. We are not “dissing the concept” or lack thereof. The movie was simply a boring, uneventful snorefest.
Jonfilms, your statement is laughable. What are your other ideas of “amazing filmmaking”? Meet the Deedles?
This weekend is shaping out the way I expected. Despite the bad reviews, I still expected the drawing power of Jamie Foxx to end up making Law Abiding Citizen 2nd and figured Paranormal Activity would end up in 3rd place. Interested to see what the staying power of Paranormal Activity will end up being. If reaction is similar to Blair Witch, Paranormal will end up dropping fast. And before anyone begins insisting that Blair Witch had great staying power, revisit the B.O. of Aug 1999 and you’ll see that it was The Sixth Sense that ended up having the smallest drops.