Spike Jonze’s magnificent “Where the Wild Things Are” was crowned king of the box-office this weekend, grossing a respectable $32.5 million … though the real success story is this week’s #3 picture, “Paranormal Activity”, which brought in $20.2 million in its first weekend in wide release.
This makes “Paranormal Activity”, which was produced for somewhere between $11,000 and $15,000, one of the most profitable movies ever made. Which is meaningless, really, except that if Oren Peli had a piece of the first-dollar gross, he’ll be in a position to buy Bolivia by the end of the month.
I’m curious to see what will happen to both pictures next week, though. They’re two of the most divisive movies of the year — check out the amusingly hostile comment exchanges that follow my reviews — and swirling word-of-mouth could generate strong numbers, or kill ’em in their cribs.
I strongly suggest that you see both of them — “Where the Wild Things Are” was one of the best films I’ve seen all year, and I found “Paranormal Activity” both clever and creepy. But then, it seems I’m one of those easily led hipster critics who’ll embrace anything with an emo soundtrack or clever viral marketing …
You definitely seem to get a better class of comment on your blog than in NOW magazine (says I, one of your frequent commenters).
So after Oren Peli buys Bolivia, will he make the jump to big budget like Rodriguez after El Mariachi or just retire on a beach somewhere? A safe, non-creepy beach.
If he were to buy Boolivia NOW, he would control half of the world’s lithium. Of course, making movies might be a secondary venture at that point, but he’d probably be in the heady financial position to buy all of Hollywood a month later, and potentially stop Michael Bay from making another Transformers film (although that might not prevent Bay from making a Bad Boys 3).
@ Chris — the people who visit this blog are the bestest people ever, so of course the tenor of their commentary would be well above-average. Also, Oren Peli is now working on an Area 51 movie, so that could be interesting.
@ Mark — nothing can stop Michael Bay from making another Transformers movie. And may cow have mercy on his soul.