Paranormal Activity 2 Breaks Records

Paranormal Activity 2 scared up $41.5 million for the weekend and in the process broke the record for a horror film in October. It also becomes the highest grossing opening weekend for supernatural-themed horror ever. The total includes $6.3 million that came from midnight showings on Thursday night which again was another record as the most for an R rated film.

Grosses did fall on Saturday by 35% and then another 36% on Sunday. There is no doubt it won’t have strong legs but after such a big opening that is to be expected. It will also be facing some competition with the release of Saw 3D next week. Considering Paranormal Activity 2 was made on a $3 million budget the results are even more stunning.

The other new opener was the drama Hereafter which expanded wide after a week in limited release. The movie made $12 million which is being seen as a disappointment but really came in about where it should have been expected to. Interest in the film despite having Matt Damon starring and Clint Eastwood as director never really picked up. Strong reviews would have helped but they were very mixed.

Paramount dominated the box office for a second straight weekend. PA2 coming in with $41.5 million here and Jackass 3D last week opened with $50 million. The latter fell to second place but pulled in another $21.6 million giving the studio huge profits on two movies that cost almost nothing in today’s environment to make.

Other holdovers saw RED fall just 31% as it made $15 million in its second weekend and The Social Network rounded out the top five in its fourth week with $7 million.