New Movie Releases Underperform

This weekend gave us yet another sign that movies are beginning to struggle more and more. This weeks new releases, in particular, had abysmal first outings.

Ben Affleck’s “Argo” was the biggest success. Not only was it the only movie that managed to crack the $10 million mark, but it actually moved up to the number one spot in America with $12.4 million all-told.

Next was “Hotel Transylvania,” which even after weeks in theaters, is still managing to hold a (comparatively) strong spot at number two with $9.5 million. The fact that it isn’t very good hasn’t deterred it in the slightest. In fact, “Hotel Transylvania” is the current record holder for highest grossing September weekend.

At number three with a paltry $9.4 million on its debut weekend is the gigantic “Cloud Atlas.” I say gigantic because the film from the makers of the Matrix trilogy not only clocks in at nearly three hours, but also cost over $100 million to make.

Unsurprisingly, this less than 10 percent return on the films budget was below the studio’s expectations.

In the spot for fourth place, we have “Paranormal Activity 4,” still trucking along with $8.7 million. That might not sound like a lot, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the film only cost just over $5 million to make. And, unlike many of the other underperforming films this week, this is not the found footage film’s first week at the box office.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Paranormal Activity series actually performs much better in Latin American countries than the United States, so the international numbers are likely even higher. It looks like we can all look forward to “Paranormal Activity 5” this time next year.

Finally, we have “Taken 2” swinging into the number five position by a slim margin over “Silent Hill: Revelation 3D.” The Liam Neeson powered sequel soaked up another $8 million this weekend, once again in spite of the fact that it isn’t very good.

The rest of the positions on this week’s top ten list were filled by “Silent Hill,” “Here Comes the Boom,” “Sinister,” “Alex Cross” and “Fun Size.”

While it didn’t make the top ten, another of this week’s new releases was “Chasing Mavericks.” The Gerard Butler (300) vehicle brought in an embarrassingly low $2.2 million and still managed to take 13th place.

Meanwhile, the video game industry continues to drink Hollywood’s milkshake with “Assassin’s Creed 3” dropping this Tuesday, and “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2” coming out in three weeks.