<div id="subtitle">'Paranormal Activity' hauls in $22M to slay 'Saw VI' in weekend battle of fright flicks</div><div><p>"Paranormal Activity" has won a weekend battle of fright films over part six of the "Saw" franchise.</p><p>Paramount's upstart chiller "Paranormal Activity" went into nationwide release and took over the No. 1 spot with $22 million. That compares to just $14.8 million for the debut of "Saw VI," a franchise that has been an annual Halloween fixture since 2004.</p><p>It was the worst opening ever for Lionsgate's "Saw" series, whose previous low was $18.3 million for the original movie. Subsequent installments of the "Saw" franchise all opened at $30 million or better.</p><p>This time, horror fans simply gravitated toward "Paranormal Activity" instead of "Saw VI."</p><p>"`Paranormal' ate their lunch," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "There's no other way to explain it."</p><p>After four weeks in narrower release, Paramount slotted "Paranormal Activity" into 1,945 theaters. That still was just under two-thirds of the 3,036 theater count for "Saw VI."</p><p>"Paranormal Activity" raised its total haul to $62.5 million. The low-budget movie was shot for a reported $15,000 but has become a horror sensation because of online fan buzz. The fictional movie unfolds like a homemade documentary as a couple copes with apparitions and supernatural phenomena in their home.</p><p>It has a strong shot at topping $100 million, something none of the "Saw" movies ever managed. While "Saw," the grisly saga of a puppetmaster putting victims through savage moral tests, was embraced as a fresh twist by horror fans five years ago, it now is part of the Hollywood establishment compared to "Paranormal Activity."</p><p>"There's no question `Paranormal' offered a fresh alternative," said Rob Moore, Paramount vice chairman. "This movie definitely has achieved a place in our culture right now."</p><p>The overall box office declined, with Hollywood revenues totaling $121 million, down 9 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" debuted with $42 million and "Saw V" opened with $30.1 million.</p><p>The box-office should get a jolt over Halloween as "Paranormal Activity" expands to as many as 2,500 theaters and Sony's "Michael Jackson: This Is It" heads into its first weekend after debuting late Tuesday night.</p><p>The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, the Warner Bros. tale "Where the Wild Things Are," fell to No. 3, just behind "Saw VI" with $14.4 million. Spike Jonze's adaptation of the beloved children's book by Maurice Sendak raised its total to $54 million.</p><p>Among other wide releases, Summit Entertainment's "Astro Boy" opened at No. 6 with $7 million, Universal's "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" debuted at No. 8 with $6.3 million, and Fox Searchlight's "Amelia" premiered at No. 11 with $4 million.</p><p>"Astro Boy" features the voices of Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell and Nicolas Cage in a sci-fi adventure based on the Japanese comic book and cartoon series about a superhero child robot. "Vampire's Assistant" stars John C. Reilly as a centuries-old bloodsucker who takes on a teenage apprentice in a traveling freak show. "Amelia" is a film biography of pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank).</p><p>In limited release from IFC Films, Lars von Trier's graphic "Antichrist" had a modest debut, pulling in $73,500 in six theaters for a $12,250 average. The movie stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a couple whose relationship devolves into torture and self-mutilation after the death of their child.</p><p>Now that "Paranormal Activity" has a firm grip on audiences, Paramount is toying with the prospects for sequels or prequels.</p><p>"Given the success of this and the passion of the online community, I think our guys have got a number of different ideas they're percolating," Moore said. "Once we've gotten to the end of this run, we'll see what other fun we can have with this."</p><p>Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.</p><p>1. "Paranormal Activity," $22 million.</p><p>2. "Saw VI," $14.8 million.</p><p>3. "Where the Wild Things Are," $14.4 million.</p><p>4. "Law Abiding Citizen," $12.7 million.</p><p>5. "Couples Retreat," $11.1 million.</p><p>6. "Astro Boy," $7 million.</p><p>7. "The Stepfather," $6.5 million.</p><p>8. "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," $6.3 million.</p><p>9. "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," $5.6 million.</p><p>10. "Zombieland," $4.3 million.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice</p><p>___</p><p>Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue Pictures is owned by Relativity Media LLC; Overture Films is a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corp.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=61944136&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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