Box Office, Horror | featured news

It took Leatherface and his chainsaw to chase tiny hobbit Bilbo Baggins out of the top spot at the box office.

Distributed by Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, "Paranormal Activity 4" took in $30.2 million in its first weekend in theaters in North America, a significant drop from the opening haul of the third film in the franchise, which earned $52.6 million.

New Line/Warner Bros.’ Anthony Hopkins horror-exorcism pic The Rite topped the box office Friday, grossing an estimated $5.3 million from 3,022 theaters.

The movie "Paranormal Activity 2" took the top slot at the box office this weekend. Paramount’s supernatural horror film brought in $41.5 million at the domestic box office, according to early estimates from Hollywood.com. That was a much bigger splash than most experts had expected.

Warner Bros.' remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" topped the domestic boxoffice on Friday with an impressive first-day tally estimated at $15.8 million, setting the stage for a $30 million-plus haul through Sunday.

"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" was back at the top of the domestic boxoffice Friday, following a one-day slip to second place on Thanksgiving. The second in a planned series of pics based on teen novels by Stephenie Meyer, "New Moon" rung up $17.9 million Friday for a cumulative boxoffice of $206.1 million through its first eight days in release.

Micro-budget thriller hacks the box office crown from perennial pre-Halloween chart topper ''Saw'' ($14.8M)

The big story this weekend is the pre-Halloween box office -- the horror, the horror of it all -- and how Saw VI, which has been a disgusting but reliably performing franchise over the years for Lionsgate, was decimated Friday by Paranormal Activity -- despite the Paramount phenom playing in 1,100+ less theaters during its 5th week of release.

The new horror movie "Paranormal Activity" could be filling movie studio marketing departments with fear. Using a campaign of limited showings, social media and word-of-mouth fan buzz, the film has managed to become a breakout hit without the aid of a glitzy marketing campaign -- or even a traditional movie trailer.

Sony had a spectacular Friday at the box office. Not only did the Culver City studio notch its sixth number-one opener of the year with "Zombieland" at $9.4 million, but also filed second with holdover "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" which earned $3.7 million.