October 29, 2007
If it’s Halloween, Saw must top the box office
Some things do not change. It is late October and there are pumpkins and cobwebs on stoops in Brooklyn.
On Saturday night, my New York subway carriage was filled with people in Halloween costumes, including a tall Frankenstein with a bolt through his neck who stood up and roared to general applause.
And, yes, the latest installment of the Saw franchise (in this case, Saw IV) has debuted at the top of the box office chart, once again showing the wisdom of Lionsgate, the studio behind the franchise.
I cannot tell you anything much about the Saw franchise, since I have not seen any of them and do not intend to. I am too squeamish to do anything more scary at Halloween than help my daughter prepare her skeleton costume for trick and treating.
But it is intriguing that Lionsgate, which pioneered the resurgence of the low budget horror franchise aimed at a college student audience, has struck gold once again. Saw IV is estimated to have brought in $32m this weekend, a year after Saw III brought in $33m on its opening weekend.
It does not seem as though there is anything to stop Lionsgate carrying on with Saws V, VI, VII, VIII etc.
Given that Hollywood is beset by volatility and unpredictability ("Nobody knows anything," the screeenwriter William Goldman observed) a low-budget franchise with no stars to demand a slice of the back-end and an impeccable revenue record is something to be envied.
