Box Office Talk: Texas Chainsaw Massacres Everything… Then Wears Their Faces

The past couple of January months have become a prime spot for opening horror movies. In 2011 Season of the Witch opened at over $10 million, in 2012 The Devil Inside opened at over $33.7 million and went on to earn over $53 million domestically and $100 million worldwide. That’s great and wonderful for studios and the box office, but in terms of quality and the hopes that terrible films and the sequels that are destined to follow are released becomes less likely. The most frustrating part is that these films look bad from the start, and after an insane number of people go and see the movie they usually remark that the film was in fact as bad as it looked. The only way studios are going to stop releasing these crap movies, is if we collectively stop going to see them.

Unfortunately, 2013 continues the trend as Texas Chainsaw (3D), which received a lot of pre-release negative reviews and earned a ‘C+’ Cinemascore from audiences; like I said, bad from the beginning and confirmed by a number of people after viewing. Having said that, there’s little doubt whatsoever that Lionsgate is going to release a sequel in the next year or two, and we’ll go through this all over again.

Promised Land, the new film starring Matt Damon and directed by Gus Van Sant exited the weekend exactly the same way it entered the weekend; without much notice or fanfare. The film wasn’t a bomb with audiences, earning a ‘B’ Cinemascore, but it appeared to be merely mediocre or unmemorable. It’s disappointing that the pair that combined for the Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting weren’t able to make a film worth talking about.

Here’s the weekend Top 10

Box Office Recap

RANK	TITLE	WEEKEND TOTAL	JOE’S PREDICTION	DOMESTIC TOTAL	WORLDWIDE TOTAL
1	Texas Chainsaw (3D)	$23,000,000 (Estimated)	$9,000,000	$23,000,000 (Estimated)	$23,000,000 (Estimated)
2	Django Unchained	$20,082,000 (Estimated) -33.3%	$23,800,000	$106,351,000 (Estimated)	$106,351,000 (Estimated)
3	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	$17,525,000 (Estimated) -45.1%	$19,800,000	$263,820,000 (Estimated)	$824,820,000 (Estimated)
4	Les Miserables	$16,117,000 (Estimated) -40.9%	$17,700,000	$103,605,000 (Estimated)	$170,705,000 (Estimated)
5	Parental Guidance	$10,125,000 (Estimated) -30.4%	$8,700,000	$52,761,000 (Estimated)	$68,461,000 (Estimated)
6	Jack Reacher	$9,300,000 (Estimated) -31.6%	$8,200,000	$64,804,000 (Estimated)	$102,404,000 (Estimated)
7	This is 40	$8,559,000 (Estimated) -31.5%	$6,500,000	$54,460,000 (Estimated)	$54,460,000 (Estimated)
8	Lincoln	$5,258,000 (Estimated) -28.3%	$5,700,000	$143,933,000 (Estimated)	$143,933,000 (Estimated)
9	The Guilt Trip	$4,530,000 (Estimated) -30.8%	$3,300,000	$31,207,000 (Estimated)	$31,207,000 (Estimated)
10	Promised Land	$4,312,000 (Estimated)	$5,000,000	$4,661,000 (Estimated)	$4,661,000 (Estimated)

The Box Office Prediction Game – Week #1 results

It was a rough weekend for all but Trevor, as everyone predicted low for Texas Chainsaw (3D); in my case, ridiculously low. On the bright side, I was able to make up a bit of ground with Promised Land. At the time of the original predictions, Trevor and Jason hadn’t made picks for the film, so it was no harm no foul for the two of them.

At the time of this posting, the weekend box office numbers are estimates. The results of the first weekend of the Box Office game will be updated on Monday, once the actuals are released.