Paranormal Activity 4 Soft But Still Tops US Box Office

While each of the previous Paranormal Activity movies has opened stronger than the last, Paranormal Activity 4 broke that streak with a soft $30 million debut. It will still be an incredibly profitable film, as it only cost $5 million to make, but it’s certainly a dip from part 3’s $52.6 million.

However Paranount can console itself with the fact that elsewhere in the world the movie has opened stronger than the last film. That said, with dodgy reviews and apparently soft word of mouth, it may not hold up stunningly well in the rup up to Halloween.

Although it’s a rather made up record, Warner is trumpeting that Argo has had the best hold of any live action movie ever released outside the November and December holiday window, dropping just 15% from its debut. It added another $16.3 million, suggesting amazing word of mouth.

Other than PA4, the only other new movie to hit the top 10 was the Tyler Perry starrer Alex Cross, which opened to a disappointing $11.75 million. Despite a marketing campaign that tried to sell the film outside Perry’s core African American audience, trying to lure in James Patterson fans, 74% of the those buying tickets were black. It’s not a great start and is likely to nix plans that were already in motion for a sequel.

Here’s the US top 10 for October 19th-21st.