How High Did The Purge Surge at this Weekend’s Box Office?

Opinions on The Purge may be greatly mixed, but audiences flocked in droves to see the futuristic home invasion flick this weekend, making it a surprise, overperforming #1, even making back ten times its budget and setting a new horror movie record in the process.

Box Office Mojo confirms James DeMonaco’s The Purge just became the little movie that could. Budgeted at $3 million, the film grossed $36.3 million this weekend, leaving the competition so much in the dust I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are already pitching the studios a new comedy that casts them as bumbling slackers that hunt people for sport in a world gone mad.

That $36 million opening also helped set a record, trumping The Devil Inside’s $30 million debut for the mantle of highest opening original R-rated horror movie.

Plans for a sequel to the high-concept sci-fi home invasion horror from Universal, Platinum Dunes, and Paranormal Activity franchise producer Jason Blum were already in the works before this weekend; now that sequel is almost assuredly going to get fast-tracked. Much like the Purge that occurs in the film, they may be hoping to make The Purge an annual event.

The celebration will be somewhat short-lived as next weekend The Purge and everything else are expected to get purged when Man of Steel opens.