The winner
When Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows came out for Halloween 2000, exactly a year after the cult horror hit that spawned it, the film opened in the UK with a disappointing £1.09m. This compared with £5.88m for the first weekend of wide play for the original The Blair Witch Project. This cautionary tale was presumably uppermost in the minds of executives at Paramount Pictures as it produced and distributed Paranormal Activity 2, the sequel to the low-budget chiller it originally acquired at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival with remake rights in mind. Encoded in the DNA of its marketing campaign was the message that Paranormal Activity 2 was no Blair Witch 2.
On the evidence of PA2's opening of £3.76m, including £453,000 in previews, that message has been received by UK cinemagoers. The figure compares with the slightly lower £3.59m, including more extensive previews of £1m, for Paranormal Activity's debut last November. Comparing like for like over the Friday-to-Sunday periods, the sequel is a solid 28% up on the opening weekend of the original Paranormal Activity.
The half-term battle
With those three family flicks picking up nearly £4m between them, two competitors found themselves virtually squeezed out. Africa United, which benefited from a certain amount of media goodwill, and was the Comic Relief gala at the London film festival, opened with a lacklustre £178,000 for a screen average of £783. Bravely tackling issues including child soldiers and safe sex, the Africa-set film isn't an easy sell to families with primary-school-age children, but arguably lacks the sophistication to satisfy teens and grown-ups, giving distributor Warner/Pathe a narrow target to aim at. Ramona & Beezus is much more clear in its intended audience – young girls – but so far has failed to entice them, with a dismal opening of £84,000 from 256 sites and an average of £330.
As the half-term holiday progresses, it's traditional for the weaker titles to pick up, as families Hoover up their second and third choices, but it remains to be seen whether they will get round to watching this season's weaker entries.
The loser
Upscale carnage
Innovative documentary The Arbor was a particular critical favourite, and deserved a better opening than its £17,000 from 17 screens. French-made thriller Carlos, a sprawling account of the titular Venezuelan-born terrorist, picked up less than £15,000 from 16 screens, but had the alibi that critics urged viewers to plump for the longer 324-minute version, rather than the 165-minute one, giving cinemagoers a choice between a marathon time commitment and a more manageable option that had been stigmatised as the lesser creative achievement. Clearly many film fans who would enjoy Carlos opted to see neither. Stop-frame animation Mary & Max also attracted critical praise, notably from BBC1's recently rebooted Film 2010, and achieved a slightly better average, with £12,000 from eight screens. Still, it's hard to escape the conclusion that discerning cinemagoers are feeling themselves well-served by The Social Network. In the capital, the London Film Festival provided additional competition for upscale audiences.
The future
Top 10 films
1.
2. Despicable Me, £2,589,170 from 549 sites. Total: £7,585,348
3. Red, £1,662,472 from 402 sites (New)
4. The Social Network, £1,538,571 from 399 sites. Total: £5,359,109
5. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole, £737,444 from 472 sites (New)
6. Alpha and Omega, £643,425 from 391 sites (New)
7. Vampires Suck, £530,136 from 358 sites. Total: £2,024,809
8. Easy A, £277,975 from 203 sites (New)
9. Life As We Know It, £263,134 from 309 sites. Total: £2,919,246
10. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, £258,968 from 225 sites. Total: £3,698,077
How the other openers did
Ramona & Beezus, 256 screens, £84,475
Jhootha Hi Sahi, 24 screens, £32,681
The Arbor, 17 screens, £16,883
Carlos, 16 screens, £14,556
Mary & Max, 8 screens, £12,053
Hisss, 9 screens, £8,517
The Stoning of Soraya M, no figures available
