Paranormal Activity Can’t Quite Mark #1 at the Box Office on this Frozen Weekend

Steve Barton   |  

Jan 6, 2014

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It’s been a good news/bad news weekend for Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. The first (horror) movie of 2014 had a solid opening weekend but still proved no match for the frozen weather in and out of movie theaters.

Disney’s Frozen climbed back to the top of the box office after a weekend that saw a good chunk of the country literally frozen, forcing Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones to mark its territory in second place. $18.5 million is the weekend total for the Latino-centric found footage spin-off. That number has to be seen as both a positive (in relation to the movie’s $5 million budget) and a bit of a disappointment (in comparison to Paranormal Activity 4’s $29 million opening). That’s also less than last year’s New Year’s horror opening Texas Chainsaw 3D ($21 million) and 2012’s The Devil Inside ($32 million).

Despite a slew of positive reviews, audiences seemed to disagree. Prospects for future weeks look bleak if Cinemascore is to be believed; Deadline reports it garnered a dreadful C- Cinemascore (D- from those polled over the age of 25). So is this once again proof that casual horror moviegoers are amongst the hardest to please audience, or did the film also end with a graphic slide suggesting viewers log onto a website to find out more about what happened next? In all seriousness, who are these people they’re polling that consistently show up for new release horror movies despite never seeming to like what they see?

The Marked Ones will face plenty of horrific competition in the weeks to come when the rival supernatural found footage Devil Due opens on the 17th and the eye-rolling I, Frankenstein begins stick fighting gargoyles on the 24th. Next weekend the only thing horrifying is the notion that a 3D Hercules flick is getting a wide theatrical release.

I’m personally looking forward to I, Frankenstein opening just because then I’ll finally be able to go to the movies and not have that trailer play in front of every damn film I see.

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