“Paranormal Activity 3” stayed on track to net the franchise’s biggest opening to-date, scoring $26.2 million in its Friday debut.
Predecessor “Paranormal Activity 2” was significantly front-loaded–the film earned roughly half of its opening weekend gross on Friday–so observers should not simply multiply this film’s Friday gross by three to predict the weekend total. But what one can conclude, with zero doubt, is that the film will easily claim the weekend total.
Its nearest competitor was “Footloose,” which earned $3.4 million. That edged “Real Steel” ($3.1 million).
In fourth was disappointing new release “The Three Musketeers,” which had a baffling promotional campaign (it was portrayed as some sort of weird artsy flick instead of a family-friendly epic). The film was good for only $2.9 million in its opener. “The Ides of March” claimed fifth with $1.5 million. Though the hold from the opening weekend for that film has technically been okay, it marks the second critically-acclaimed Ryan Gosling starrer of the season (following “Drive”) to underwhelm at the box office.
New release “Johnny English Reborn” did even worse than expected, earning just $1.1 million for eighth place.
