Biff Bam Pop’s Box Office Wrap-Up Report – Weekend of October 21

A huge weekend at the box office, thanks to the debut of the latest in the Paranormal Activity franchise. A few hits, a few misses when it comes to our top five predictions – let’s see how it all went down:

Paranormal Activity 3 wasn’t just the big winner at the box office this weekend, it was massive, hitting a franchise best with $54 million to debut at number one. I predicted it would top the weekend, but with $20 million less, but in this case, I’m genuinely happy to be wrong. Paranormal Activity 3 is a solid film from beginning to end and uses innuendo and sound to give us scares, rather than the gratuitous violence of the horror films that have been hitting theatres the last few years. A great ghost story doesn’t need to equal violence. Clearly, this style of horror film is resonating strongly with audiences, not to mention the fact that Paranormal Activity has managed to create its own mythology. We’ve got one more weekend before Halloween, so I’m expecting the film to do good box office next weekend as well.

Debuting at number four with a lacklustre $8.8 million was The Three Musketeers 3D (I had predicted a third place finish with $11 million). Co-star Milla Jovovitch made headlines over the weekend when she criticized the film’s studio Summit for not promoting it effectively, and its clear she’s got a point. Look for The Three Musketeers 3D to drop fairly quickly in the coming weeks, since word of mouth isn’t particularly strong on this one as well.

As for the rest of the top five, Real Steel held strong at number 2 with $11 million (I had predicted $14 million), Footloose came in third with a decent $10.8 million, dropping only 30% week to week (I had predicted a fourth place finish with $9 million), while The Ides of March rounded out the top five with $4.9 million (I had predicted $7 million).

As for Johnny English Reborn, it was completely D.O.A., debuting at number eight with a brutal $3.8 million.

So, to recap, here were our predictions:

1) Paranormal Activity 3 – $34 million
2) Real Steel – $14 million
3) The Three Musketeers – $11 million
4) Footloose – $9 million 
5) The Ides of March – $7 million

And here’s how the weekend turned out:

1) Paranormal Activity 3 – $54 million
2) Real Steel – $11 million
3) Footloose – $10.8 million
4) The Three Musketeers 3D – $8.8 million 
5) The Ides of March – $4.9 million

Next weekend, Paranormal Activity 3 tries to hold onto the top spot against four debuting films – In Time, Puss In Boots, The Rum Diaries and Anonymous. Check back on Friday to see our predictions!