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'Saw' arises from dead to slash through North American box offices
2007-10-28
The grizzly slasher Jigsaw may be dead, but that didn't keep the newest film in the torture-horror franchise, "Saw IV," from dominating North American box offices over the weekend, according to industry estimates Sunday. The Lionsgate bloodfest, again featuring Tobin Bell as the now-dead Jigsaw, Lyriq Bent, Scott Patterson and Betsy Russell, and again directed by Darren Bousman, pulled in 32.1 million on its opening weekend, according to projections from box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. Comedies and horror alternated in dominating movie theater takings during the weekend, in which top 12 films took in 86 million dollars, slightly off the 87.7 million for the same weekend a year ago. Coming in a distant second in the weekend's scoresheet was another debut, family comedy "Dan in Real Life," in which a widower advice columnist -- Steve Carrell -- who is none too hot about running his own personal life, falls in love with a woman -- Juliette Binoche -- who turns out to be his brother's girlfriend. The Disney picture pulled in 12.1 million dollars for its opening weekend. Last week's top film, vampire flick "30 Days of Night," held up for third in the rankings, bringing in 6.7 million to raise its two-week gross earnings to 27.3 million. Fourth for the weekend was Disney football comedy "The Game Plan," which sold 6.3 million worth of tickets at theatres in the United States and Canada to take its five-week earnings to 77.1 million dollars. Scoring fifth was another Lionsgate film, "Why Did I Get Married," in its third week in the theaters. Director Tyler Perry's comedy-drama, starring pop music princess Janet Jackson, earned 5.7 million dollars, for a total of 47.3 million since it opened. Rounding out the top 10 in projections for the weekend were: "Michael Clayton" (5.0 million), "Gone Baby Gone" (3.9 million), "The Comebacks" (3.5 million), "We Own the Night" (3.4 million), and Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas," a 3-D re-release of the 2000 hit which took in 3.4 million dollars, for a round 10.0 million in two weeks.
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