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Paranormal continued its preternatural rise. Made for $11,000, bought by Paramount Pictures for just $300,000 and marketed for less than $10 million, Oren Peli's subtle scare-athon earned $22 million to become a winner in its fifth week of gradually widening release. It has now earned $62.5 million and could hit $100 million. What's next? The Inevitable. According to today's Los Angeles Times, Paramount is "actively considering producing a sequel...
...tight race with Saw VI, four of whose elder siblings had easily won the pre-Halloween weekends on which they,d been released. But some steamrollers can't be stopped. Paranormal, playing on only 64% as many screens as Saw VI, made 67% more money. The $14.8 million estimated weekend total had to be a disappointment to Lionsgate, the series, sponsor. "If we end up with at least $20 million," David Spitz, the company's executive VP and general manager, told the industry blog The Wrap, "we'll be talking about Saw VII, this time next year...
Before throwing dirt on the Saw coffin, consider that the first film in the franchise, made for just $1.2 million back in 2004, earned $103.1 million worldwide; and that the total gross for the first five films is a whopping $669 million on a still stingy $35 million cumulative budget. That's the kind of return on investment that encourages a studio to keep grinding 'em out. Moreover, each of the last three entries made more than half its money in foreign markets, where Saw VI isn't going up against the no-budget specter of Paranormal. So gorenography aficionados...
...director Paul Weitz (American Pie, About a Boy, In Good Company) and Oscar-winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential). Its distributor had a modest goal: "If it comes in with double digits," said Universal's Nikki Rocco, "that will be a win for us." Instead, it cadged just $6.3 million. Expect no sequels du Freak...
...play Amelia Earhart, was finally made with Hilary Swank starring and India-born, Harvard-educated Mira Nair behind the camera. It happens that, in every recent year divisible by five, Swank has won the Academy Award for Best Actress: in 2000 for Boys Don,t Cry and 2005 for Million Dollar Baby. Numerology suggested another Swank statuette in 2010. But who, exactly, was supposed to pay to see her as The Aviatrix? Earhart's plane was lost in the mid-Pacific 72 years ago, making octogenarians the target demographic. Amelia didn't premiere at the Venice or Toronto film festivals...