Horror films hit dead zone at summer box office

By Joshua L. Weinstein

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - This summer has been a dead zone for horror movies.

"Fright Night," DreamWorks' remake of a 1985 comedy/horror cult hit, has done a shabby $14 million since it was released August 19.

"Final Destination 5," New Line's most recent installment to its decade-old franchise, has not come close to matching the huge performance of 2009's fourth movie, grossing just $66.4 million worldwide after three weekends of release.

"Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," FilmDistrict's remake of a 1973 TV movie, written by Guillermo del Toro, was a dud, opening to just $8.52 million over the weekend.

What's behind the rotten box office? Analysts say a lack of originality, bad timing and poor budgeting are the source of horror-ific numbers.

"It was a rough summer," Jeffrey Reddick, who wrote the original "Final Destination," told TheWrap. "People are wanting something new and original, and I think if you look at the films that have come out -- strong as they were -- they were remakes and sequels."

"Final Destination 5" was the latest in a seemingly endless series of stories about young people stalked by death. "Fright Night" and "Don't Be Afraid" were reboots of films first made 26 and 38 years ago, respectively.

"For the younger horror audience, there's been a lot of studio comic book movies and action movies," said Bob Berney, FilmDistrict's president of theatrical distribution. "It could be just be ... that these films didn't grab people."

Meanwhile, well-known stars -- like Colin Farrell in "Fright Night" -- might actually have hurt the cause rather than helped.

Beau Flynn, who produced the Anthony Hopkins exorcism-themed film, "The Rite," said movie stars can be distractions in horror movies.

"If a movie star is going to take the audience out of the movie, let's not spend the money," he said.

"What could be scarier than what's happening to your house, and to people you know and to your neighbors?" Flynn asked.

Summer is not traditionally the time when Hollywood unlocks its horror chest, with Halloween making October a better release time for the genre.

But the genre's forays into August in recent years -- which included not only the $186.2 million global performance of "The Final Destination" in 2009, but also the breakout $67.7 million haul by Lionsgate's micro-budgeted "The Last Exorcism" in 2010 -- have moved up the timeline.

Perhaps not surprisingly audiences were looking for light-hearted fun this summer, embracing comedies like "Bridesmaids" and "Horrible Bosses," which became unexpected hits.

This is not to say the year has been bereft of horror success.

FilmDistrict's "Insidious," produced by micro-budget horror pioneer Oren Peli himself ('Paranormal Activity'), grossed $92 million on a $1.5 million production budget.

"Every time something original comes out and does really well, we kind of hope and pray the industry will say, 'There is a huge audience for something original. Let's make more originals,'" said Reddick.

He added that a sequel with a creative twist could get a better reception, such as Peli's "Paranormal Activity 3," which opens October 21.

"They've done something clever with that franchise, where each sequel is a prequel to the one before," Roddick said. "So you get the sense that the third one is the last one -- a trilogy rather than a never-ending franchise."

Flynn told TheWrap that super low-budget horror films could be where genre's future lies.

Due out Friday, for example, Weinstein/Dimension's "Apollo 18" comes with a modest negative spend of only around $5 million.

So "Fright Night," which had a budget of $30 million, "Final Destination 5," which cost $40 million and "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," which cost an estimated $28 million and starred Katie Holmes, may have been tough bets from the start.

"That doesn't mean there aren't exceptions to the rule," Flynn said. "Studios will spend the money -- they'll spend $35 million if they think it's a good piece of business."

But we're not quite done with summer horror yet. In addition to "Apollo 18," this Labor Day weekend, Relativity Media will release "Shark Night 3D," with hopes that its movie is different enough from the others to attract audiences.

Further down the release calendar come more sequels and remakes -- not only the third "Paranormal," but also Universal's remake of John Carpenter's 1981 remake of "The Thing" (October 14), as well as Weinstein/Dimension's sequel to 2010's 3D re-do of "Piranha" (November 23).

Reddick said he's looking forward to them -- even "The Thing."

"They've almost run out of things to remake," he said. "I said that two years ago, and apparently they hadn't."

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"The Help" holds on at top of storm-hit box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The hard-working maids of "The Help" hung on to the top of a storm-battered box office over the weekend and beat a trio of new releases with $14.3 million in domestic ticket sales, studio estimates released on Sunday showed.

Hurricane Irene forced the closure of theaters in big markets such as New York and kept moviegoers home along a broad stretch of the East Coast. Domestic ticket sales came in 23 percent lower than the same weekend a year earlier, according to figures from Hollywood.com.

"The Help," a drama about black housekeepers in Civil Rights-era Mississippi, took the top spot in the North American (U.S. and Canadian) market for the second straight weekend. The DreamWorks-produced film adaptation of a best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett has grossed $96.6 million since it opened three weeks ago, distributor Walt Disney Co said.

The bad weather did not help new releases on a late summer weekend that was expected to be slow even without a major storm.

Action movie "Colombiana" debuted in second place with an estimated $10.3 million, ahead of studio forecasts of around $8 million. The film features actress Zoe Saldana as a woman who witnesses her parents' murder as a child in Bogota and grows up to be an assassin seeking revenge.

"The picture is off to a good start, storm or no storm," said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp that released the film.

Horror movie "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," starring Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce, finished third with domestic sales of $8.7 million.

"Our key large urban East Coast markets were really killed" by the hurricane, said Bob Berney, president of theatrical distribution for FilmDistrict. For example, the movie took in nearly $21,000 at one Manhattan theater on Friday and zero on Saturday, Berney said.

"APES" STILL STRONG

Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst with Hollywood.com, said there was "no question" the hurricane had a "significant negative impact" on ticket sales.

"That said, this was never preordained to be a blockbuster kind of weekend and late August is typically a slowdown period for the summer movie season," he said.

Sci-fi movie "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" finished fourth with $8.7 million, bringing its domestic total to $148.5 million over four weeks. Internationally, the film about rampaging, genetically enhanced chimps has grossed $158.5 million.

Combining domestic and international markets, "Apes" has climbed to a strong $307 million to date. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.

A new comedy, "Our Idiot Brother," landed in fifth place for the weekend with $6.6 million domestically. The movie stars Paul Rudd as an underachieving but big-hearted sibling who disrupts the lives of his three sisters.

The film likely felt the brunt of Irene's box-office punch as the movie had been expected to perform well in New York, said Erik Lomis, president of distribution for The Weinstein Co, which released the movie. "We got hit hardest in our best area. It's an East Coast comedy," Lomis said.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Bill Trott and Sandra Maler)

This story corrects the spelling of “Colombiana” in paragraph 5.

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"The Help" continues to dominate box office

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - DreamWorks' "The Help" helped itself to the $100 million mark at the domestic box office Wednesday.

The $25 million period drama starring Emma Stone has been one of the summer's surprise breakout hits, winning the domestic box office during its second and third weekends of release.

"We went from opening not No. 1 to being No. 1, which is unusual in itself," Dave Hollis, Disney's executive VP of distribution, told TheWrap. Disney handles distribution for DreamWorks.

Three weeks into its run, "The Help" is actually adding locations: It opened with 2,534 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, expanded by 156 in its second week, by another 88 in its third and is going up by some 65 more this weekend, Hollis said.

And as time goes on, the demographics of its audience are changing.

Hollis said that during the first weekend, the movie played well in urban, heartland and upscale theaters, but skewed older and female.

In the weeks since, it has expanded its reach and is now drawing old and young, male and female, Hollis said.

"We hope that what we've seen to date is something that can continue into the end of summer and into fall," he said. "We've been fortunate to have what I can only describe as the movie to see in recent weeks."

The movie opens in its first international territory, Australia, this weekend.

"The Help" is the story of friendship among African American maids in 1963, and offers an unsparing look at the way their employers treat them.

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