Deliver Us from Evil opened at the start of the 4th of July holiday weekend. To date, it has grossed $15 million since opening Wednesday, July 2nd, but box office analysts are focusing their targets on the film's $9.5 million weekend gross and taking fire. Understandable. That's a pretty weak weekend performance. It was up against the new comedy Tammy and holdovers likes Transformers, 22 Jump Street and How to Train Your Dragon. If you recall, Deliver Us from Evil was pushed up from its original 2015 release date because Sony was so confident in the film that it thought Deliver could earn some big bucks akin to The Conjuring's mid-summer success last year.

Regardless of the quality of Deliver Us from Evil, I honestly think the film would have had a tough go of it at the box office because, more or less…audiences are getting supernatural fatigue.

This year we've seen four other major supernatural releases open to middling or poor box office numbers. Take a look:

• Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (Opening weekend: $18.3 million / Final domestic: $32.4 million – a low performance by this franchise's standard)
• Devil's Due (Opening weekend: $8.3 million / Final domestic: $15.8 million)
• Oculus (Opening weekend: $12 million / Final domestic: $27.6 million)
• The Quiet Ones (Opening weekend: $3.8 million / Final domestic: $8.5 million)

It's clear audiences are trying to send a message to Hollywood – enough with the exorcism, hauntings and possessions. It's all bleeding together. It's hard to differentiate one from the other. Certainly, supernatural fare has been felt over the years with Insidious and the Paranormal Activity films, but the last few months have been especially busy. And within the span of a year, Hollywood has effectively made moviegoers grow weary of these types of films and their apathetic reaction is being felt at the box office. Hollywood's fixation on capturing The Conjuring's success could be partially to blame. The VOD market is always expanding, welcoming more smaller budgeted imitators that flood the market – I'd like to think this is to blame, too.

But the bottom line is this: The audience is ready to move on. Where Hollywood likes to dwell on the past's success and try to recapture whatever worked over and over and over, audiences are looking for the next big thing in horror that may not have anything to do at all with Conjuring-like thrills. What that next "thing" is we never know. I get asked that all of the time: "What the next big thing?" The answer doesn't come easy. But when that special horror film hits, you can just feel it. I felt that way when I saw The Conjuring (it also helped that it had a brilliant ad campaign).

Side note: I ranted a bit about "the supernatural at the box office" via Twitter and one Shock reader suggested a return to slasher films. I honestly think a studio needs to have a pretty daring, crazy, inventive idea for the slasher film to catch on again.

As for the supernatural – it may be time to go. Of course, I say this when there's another Paranormal Activity on the way along with Jessebelle, Annabelle (a Conjuring spin-off), Amityville, Ouija, As Above So Below, the Poltergeist remake, Insidious Chapter 3 and The Conjuring 2. So, "the supernatural" isn't going to be departing our theaters any time soon, but I think now would be a good time for studios to start thinking of a contingency plan and mine some other horror genres to reignite the box office.

The post Discussion: Are Audiences Getting Tired of the Supernatural? appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Out of all of the places for the Ouija trailer debut, I didn’t expect it to premiere on the Facebook page for Pretty Little Liars. Alas, that’s where it hit and you can watch it here at Shock now. I guess we now know what audience they’re going after.

The film is the latest production from Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes. Stiles White directs and Olivia Cooke, Shelley Hennig, Douglas Smith, Bianca Santos and Daren Kagasoff star. They play group of friends use a Ouija board in an attempt to contact a deceased friend, but only open a door to a malevolent force instead.

The film is slated for an October 24th release.

The post The Ouija Trailer Finally Makes Its Online Premiere appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Universal Pictures has summoned a new preview for their upcoming supernatural thriller, Ouija. Check it out in the player below!

Directed by Stiles White and starring Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, Bianca Santos, Daren Kagasoff, Vivis Colombetti, Ana Coto and Erin Moriarty, Ouija follows a group of friends who must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board.

Ouija hits theaters on October 24.

The post Ouija Summons a New Preview! appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

There’s a new trailer out for Ouija, the supernatural thriller coming from Universal on October 24th. Directed by Stiles White and starring Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, Bianca Santos, Daren Kagasoff, Vivis Colombetti, Ana Coto and Erin Moriarty, Ouija follows a group of friends who must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board. Ouija is another joint production between Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes. The two have also collaborated on The Purge films.

The post A New Ouija Trailer Discourages You from Contacting the Dead appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

A Shock reader who works for a movie theater informed us today that they’ve received the teaser trailer for Insidious Chapter 3 and it’s apparently going to run before Ouija when the film opens this Friday, October 24th.

This makes sense because the latter is a Blumhouse Production (well, a joint production with Platinum Dunes that’s getting released through Universal).

Insidious Chapter 3 stars Dermot Mulroney and Stefanie Scott alongside Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson, and Whannell, with the latter trio reprising their roles from the first two movies in the franchise.

In the film, a twisted new tale of terror begins for a teenage girl and her family, predating the haunting of the Lambert family in the earlier movies and revealing more mysteries of the otherworldly realm The Further.

Insidious Chapter 3 opens in theaters May 29, 2015.

Ouija, meanwhile, is directed by Stiles White and stars Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, Bianca Santos, Daren Kagasoff, Vivis Colombetti, Ana Coto and Erin Moriarty.

It follows a group of friends who must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board.

The post Insidious Chapter 3 Trailer to Hit the Screen This Friday? appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

This Friday sees the release of Ouija and, recently, Shock Till You Drop attended a screening of the supernatural thriller at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Following a look at the film, we joined cast members Olivia Cooke, Daren Kagasoff, Shelley Hennig, Ana Coto and Bianca Santos in the spooky locale to chat about their experience working on this Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes production.

The gang talk about the “hilarious” time they had on set, Witchboard, working with director Stiles White, the proper handling of a Ouija board and why some cast members think the film is a “good family horror movie.” Now, that’s not all… We also had a rather spoiler-y conversation with the cast, stay tuned for that video after the film’s release on October 24th.

Ouija follows a group of friends who must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board.

The post Shock Video: We’re Talking With the Cast of Ouija appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Is it scary? No.  Is it occasionally startling? Occasionally, but it’s so focused on getting that startle that it gives up on anything approaching suspense.

It all starts off well enough when young ingénue Debbie (Henning) suddenly and surprisingly hangs herself in her living room. As catalyst, it’s a good one. The idea of something from the outside taking over your motor control and forcing you to self-harm is both viscerally and existentially horrifying (particularly if the victim is aware of what is happening to them). It also allows for the introduction of Debbie’s friends without much of the meet-cute and knowing cleverness which has been thrust on the teen foci of horror films since Scream. Debbie’s friends are devastated by her death and in their attempts to grieve they talk to each other like real human beings at not characters from a John Hughes film. It gives weight to their bond which is vital to making their deaths exert any sort of feeling on the audience beyond the thrill of the moment.

Debbie’s death hits no one harder than her best friend Laine (Cooke) who refuses to believe everything is as clear as it’s being made to look. Investigating the final days of Debbie’s life, Laine learns of the Ouija board her friend discovered and begins to suspect (with very little reason) that Debbie had made contact with something or someone from beyond and it killed her.

This is where everything begins to fall apart, for Laine and for us.

Co-writer/director Stiles White (in his directorial debut) quickly dives into the pool of horror film clichés, pulling everyone with him whether they want to go or not. Because this is a film about teens in danger all adults are quickly brushed aside in order to make room for the teens to start controlling the action. Which basically means to make room for them to make horrible decisions like using their dead friends Ouija board in the house she killed herself in, and then going back and doing it again. Nor do they bother to return even as the body count begins to stack up.

The interesting investigation angle also takes a turn for the worse as White works to get it out of the way as quickly as possible once his plot has started, in order to spend more time on his suspense moments. Exposition becomes a chore dealt with as peremptorily and lazily as possible. Debbie, it turns out, was a narcissist who video-taped everything she did, including her discovery and experiments with the Ouija board, so that others can discover the proof of what has been going on just in time to move the next act along. And anything the videos won’t inform about, Laine’s spiritual housekeeper Nona (Colombetti) has handy-dandy information about just in time to make sure we understand the mechanics of the final confrontation.  And when a horror film becomes about mechanics (‘you must stand at this spot and recite this incantation at just this time to remove the demon’) it becomes a known quantity which destroys suspense. Suspense is about the fear of the unknown.

Yes, exposition is hard and tedious and often the worst part of writing, but that’s no excuse for hackery, which is what we get the more Ouija goes on.  Part of that is the length, at a bare 90 minutes White has cut his film to the bone, but with an eye towards making the most of his scares he’s had to lose much of the connective tissue that would make those thrills matter. Coherence eventually goes out the window as Ouija tries to build speed to its conclusion, a side effect of which being you won’t have time to wonder about the logic of the ghost reaching out to the real world and killing people until it is released from the bonds holding it down so that it will be free to reach out to the real world and kill people.That’s mostly because after a promising start White quickly falls victim to the horror film curse as he sets aside suspense and thrills as a goal and aims solely for visceral scares, the kind that get the adrenaline pumping for a moment, then disappear and are forgotten. As usually happens, the law of diminishing returns quickly takes hold after the first person jumps out of the shadows, leaving White to scramble to keep his momentum going even as he cuts off all avenues for doing so.

Ouija sticks so firmly to the modern horror film playbook that it will surely appeal to fans of the modern horror film. But like the jump scares the film revels in, once the initial excitement passes it will quickly be forgotten in the chase for the next thing.

The post Review: Ouija Favors Cheap Scares Over Genuine Fear appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

The weekend before Halloween saw the release of an obligatory horror film in the form of Ouija (Universal), pairing Blumhouse Productions and Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes for a low-budget supernatural thriller based on the popular Hasbro sleepover party game.

Opening on Thursday night and taking in $8.3 million in its first 24 hours, Ouija ended up with an estimated $20 million for the weekend in its 2,858 locations, or $7,000 per theater. 69% of the audience for the movie was female, but its “C” CinemaScore is not a good sign for the movie sustaining any sort of legs even with Halloween next Friday. 

Although New Line’s horror prequel Annabelle has fallen out of the Top 10 with $3.3 million grossed ths weekend, it has now grossed over $200 million with just $79.5 million of that grossed in North America. Being that the movie reportedly cost $6.5 million to produce, that’s another hugely profitable horror movie for New Line following last year’s The Conjuring. This past week, it was announced that director James Wan would be returning for the sequel to the 2013 horror hit, to be released in 2016.

You can view the rest of this week’s box office report over on ComingSoon.net.

The post Ouija Wins the Weekend Box Office with $20 Million appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

After grossing over $70 million worldwide and counting, Universal’s $5-million budgeted horror hit Ouija proved to be yet another low-cost moneymaker from Blumhouse Productions (Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister). Now fans can summon the thrills with a Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD Combo Pack on February 3, and you can check out the new trailer below!

Bonus Features Exclusive to Blu-ray include:

The Spirit Board: An Evolution – Journey back in time and trace the history of “automatic writing” and “talking boards” as it goes from ritual to novelty act to board game and now movie.

Icon of the Unknown – A look at the mystical and scientific explanations for how the Ouija board works.

Bonus Features on the Blu-ray and DVD:

Adapting the Fear – Join the cast and crew on set to learn how they adapted this portal to the spirit world into a feature film.

Directed by Stiles White and starring Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, Bianca Santos, Daren Kagasoff, Vivis Colombetti, Ana Coto and Erin Moriarty, Ouija follows a group of friends who must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board. The film will also be available on Digital HD January 13 (Friday the 13th!).

The post Watch the Blu-ray Trailer for Ouija appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

And by talk, I mean mention. And by mention, I mean in very brief sentences. The news is barely there! 

As I noted in my Most Anticipated of 2015, there’s a new Friday the 13th film slated for release this November. Will we see it take form by then? It’s certainly possible, considering how quickly studio horror’s current major franchises (Paranormal Activity, The Purge) have previously turned around. Even Larry Zerner, of Friday the 13th Part 3 noted on Twitter, “On F13-3d we started filming in March and release was 8/13, so it’s still possible..” And so, it’s not terribly surprising that producer Andrew Form, speaking to Collider, said, “Just working on the script still. Hoping to make that movie this year…” Perhaps more interesting is the seeming lack of hard commitment to making November 13th. 

Form also added, “…and Brad, I’m gonna confirm that Jason is in the movie.” Of course, Jason is also in 1980’s Friday the 13th.

As far as a follow-up to last October’s teen horror entry Ouija, Form’s regular co-producer and Platinum Dunes co-creator Brad Fuller, also speaking to Collider, simply states, “Ouija 2 is coming.”

Get stoked?

The post Fuller and Form Talk The Developing Friday the 13th and Ouija 2 appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

Universal Pictures has summoned the theatrical trailer for their upcoming supernatural thriller, Ouija. Check it out in the player below! We’ve also got Ouija‘s official poster and the first three stills from the October 24 release, all of which can be seen in the gallery viewer at the bottom of this page.

Directed by Stiles White and starring Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, Bianca Santos, Daren Kagasoff, Vivis Colombetti, Ana Coto and Erin Moriarty, Ouija follows a group of friends who must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board.

The post Ouija Summons a Theatrical Trailer appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions today announced that they have entered into a new 10-year first-look production agreement and that Blumhouse is forming new partnerships that will span across NBCUniversal businesses, including Universal Television and Universal Cable Productions. Blumhouse will also bring its “Sinister” franchise to Focus Features, making Universal home to three of the company’s most profitable micro-budget franchises including The Purge and Insidious, which is already based at Focus. The announcement was made by Chairman, Universal Filmed Entertainment, Jeff Shell, Chairman, Universal Pictures, Donna Langley and Founder and CEO, Blumhouse Productions, Jason Blum.

“This studio has had an incredible experience working with Blumhouse and it only makes sense to broaden that partnership to NBCUniversal’s broadcast and cable networks,” said Shell. “Jason and his team bring an energy and focus that can be felt across the company and we are thrilled to honor his passion for entertainment with a long term commitment and extension of that relationship.”

Langley, who recruited Blum to come to Universal in 2011 added, “Jason founded a company in Blumhouse that is unique and cutting edge, and we’re honored that they call Universal home. Jason is extremely driven and highly creative. His style coupled with his industry relationships and strategic business model have been a recipe for much success between our companies. We look forward to expanding our opportunities together.”

Blumhouse’s film division specializes in micro-budget genre movies, including the highly-profitable “Paranormal Activity,” “Insidious,” “The Purge” and “Sinister” franchises, which have grossed more than $1.2 billion worldwide on combined budgets under $40 million.

Blumhouse’s model began with the original Paranormal Activity, which was made for $15,000 and grossed close to $200 million worldwide, making it the most profitable film in Hollywood history. The company’s first film with Universal was the huge summer 2013 hit The Purge which debuted at No. 1 and grossed 11 times its $3 million budget in the first weekend ($34.1 million). The sequel, The Purge: Anarchy opened this weekend and grossed an estimated $28.4 million in North America alone making it another extremely profitable film for Universal and Blumhouse.

Blumhouse’s next micro-budget releases with Universal will be the supernatural thriller Ouija, which will be released October 24, 2014, a psychological thriller starring Jennifer Lopez, The Boy Next Door, which opens January 23, 2015 and the next chapter in the “Insidious” franchise to be released by Focus Features. Blumhouse and Universal’s other micro-budget projects in development and production includes Hasbro’s Jem and the Holograms and In a Valley of Violence, starring Ethan Hawke and John Travolta.

Blum said, “Jeff and Donna and the entire team at Universal are the best at what they do. They take our micro-budget, filmmaker driven genre movies and turn them into highly-profitable, global franchises through their commitment, passion and creativity. The first thing people see when they walk into Blumhouse is the ‘wall of directors’ where we hang photos of all of our filmmakers. We are very excited to continue building on our success with Universal by adding to that ever growing wall and giving more and more directors and now show-runners creative freedom to tell their stories.”

In addition to the new film relationship announced today, Blumhouse will also be forming partnerships with NBCUniversal to provide a variety of content including network and cable television shows, digital properties and more. In recent years, Blumhouse has been ramping up its television business. The company is working on both scripted and non-scripted shows including projects for Syfy (“Ascension,” which is currently in production), MTV (“Eye Candy”), ABC and Mike Darnell. Blumhouse previously executive produced the Emmy nominated and Critics’ Choice award winner “The Normal Heart” for HBO, “Stranded” for Syfy and “The River” for ABC.

Along with “The Normal Heart,” other award-winning Blumhouse projects include the feature film Whiplash which won both the Grand Jury and Audience prizes at Sundance.

CAA, Blumhouse consultant Charles Layton, John Diemer and Carlos Goodman negotiated the deal with NBCUniversal on behalf of Blumhouse.

The post Blumhouse and NBCUniversal Sign 10-Year Production Deal appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

Universal Pictures has summoned a new preview for their upcoming supernatural thriller, Ouija. Check it out in the player below!

Directed by Stiles White and starring Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, Bianca Santos, Daren Kagasoff, Vivis Colombetti, Ana Coto and Erin Moriarty, Ouija follows a group of friends who must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board.

Ouija hits theaters on October 24.

The post Ouija Summons a New Preview! appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

Universal Pictures has summoned a new international trailer for their upcoming supernatural thriller, Ouija. Check it out in the player below!

Directed by Stiles White and starring Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, Bianca Santos, Daren Kagasoff, Vivis Colombetti, Ana Coto and Erin Moriarty, Ouija follows a group of friends who must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board.

The post Ouija Summons an International Trailer appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

This Friday sees the release of Ouija and, recently, ShockTillYouDrop.com attended a screening of the supernatural thriller at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Following a look at the film, they joined cast members Olivia Cooke, Daren Kagasoff, Shelley Hennig, Ana Coto and Bianca Santos in the spooky locale to chat about their experience working on this Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes production.

The gang talk about the “hilarious” time they had on set, Witchboard, working with director Stiles White, the proper handling of a Ouija board and why some cast members think the film is a “good family horror movie.” Now, that’s not all… they also had a rather spoiler-y conversation with the cast – stay tuned for that video after the film’s release on October 24th.

Ouija follows a group of friends who must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO INTERVIEWS >>

The post Video Interviews with the Cast of Ouija appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.

The weekend before Halloween saw an obligatory horror film in the form of Ouija (Universal), pairing Blumhouse Productions and Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes for a low-budget supernatural thriller based on the popular Hasbro sleepover party game. Opening on Thursday night and taking in $8.3 million in its first 24 hours, Ouija ended up with an estimated $20 million for the weekend in its 2,858 locations, or $7,000 per theater. 69% of the audience for the movie was female, but its “C” CinemaScore is not a good sign for the movie sustaining any sort of legs even with Halloween next Friday.

Taking a strong second place was Keanu Reeves’ revenge thriller John Wick (Lionsgate), which scored approximately $14.2 million in 2,589 theaters, an average of $5,465 per site. It’s Keanu’s best showing since 2008’s The Day the Earth Stood Still remake almost six years ago.

Brad Pitt’s WWII tank movie Fury, directed by David Ayer, followed closely behind in third place with $13 million and $46.1 million in its first ten days of domestic release.

David Fincher’s Gone Girl (20th Century Fox), starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, continued its strong run for the month with another $11.1 million (down 37%) to bring its domestic total to $124.1 million. That makes it the highest-grossing movie of the fall movie season.

In fifth place, 20th Century Fox’s animated adventure The Book of Life added another $9.8 million to its domestic take of $29.9 million.

The Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy comedy St. Vincent (The Weinstein Co.) expanded nationwide into 2,282 theaters after grossing a million in limited release, and it had a strong presence in sixth place with roughly $8.1 million. Its “A-” CinemaScore is a good sign that the movie was able to connect with its intended audience.

That was followed in seventh place with $7 million by Disney’s family comedy Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, starring Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner, which has grossed $45.5 million so far.

The latest Nicholas Sparks romantic drama The Best of Me (Relativity), starring Michelle Monaghan, James Marsden, Luke Bracey and Liana Liberato, tanked in its second weekend, down 54% to fifth place with $4.8 million. With $17.7 million grossed so far, it’s looking to become one of the biggest Nicholas Sparks bombs to date.

The Robert Downey-Robert Duvall dramedy The Judge (Warner Bros.) took ninth place with $4.3 million, just ahead of Universal Pictures’ Dracula Untold, starring Luke Evans, which rounded out the Top 10 with $4.3 million (down 57%) and $48.3 million domestic gross. The Judge has grossed $34.4 million so far. Despite its relatively weak showing in North America, Dracula Untold has grossed $166 million worldwide with another $14.7 million added in overseas markets this weekend.

The Top 10 grossed an estimated $96.5 million, which is slightly better than the same weekend last year when Johnny Knoxville’s Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (Paramount) won the weekend with $32.1 million and Ridley Scott’s star-studded crime-thriller The Counselor (20th Century Fox) bombed with just $7.8 million in over 3,000 theaters.

Although New Line’s horror prequel Annabelle fell outside the Top 10 with $3.3 million, it’s being reported that it’s now grossed over $200 million with just $79.5 million of that grossed in North America. Being that the movie reportedly cost $6.5 million to produce, that’s another hugely profitable horror movie for New Line following last year’s The Conjuring. This past week, it was announced that director James Wan would be returning for the sequel to the 2013 horror hit.

Disney Animation Studios released their upcoming Big Hero 6 in Russia, two weeks before its North American release, to take advantage of school holidays there, and it grossed $4.8 million, which is more than previous Disney releases like Wreck-It Ralph and Monsters University.

In its second weekend, Alejandro Inarritu’s acclaimed Birdman (Fox Searchlight, starring Michael Keaton, expanded into 50 theaters where it took in $1.4 million, or $28 thousand per theater, for a $2 million total after ten days.

Filmmaker Justin Simien’s debut Dear White People (Roadside Attractions) expanded into 384 theaters where it took in $1.3 million, or $3,422 per site, to bring its total to $1.8 million.

Two movies opened in five theaters each with the Laura Poitras doc Citizenfour (RADiUS-TWC) about Edward Snowden taking in an estimated $125.2 thousand or $23 thousand per site to the $78 thousand taken in by Lynn Shelton’s Laggies (A24), starring Keira Knightley and Sam Rockwell, which averaged $15.7 thousand per location.

Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films.

The post Box Office Results: Ouija Scares Up $20 Million appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.

For the first time since June when Sony’s 22 Jump Street took on DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2, two movies were released with enough demand so that both opened with more than $50 million (based on estimates). Like that weekend, one movie was expected to open better than the other but ended up settling for second place; in this case, it was the animated movie that won the first weekend of the holiday movie season.

Walt Disney Studios Animation opened their latest animated movie, the superhero action-adventure Big Hero 6, in 3,761 theaters on Thursday night. After grossing an estimated $15.8 million on Friday, it had a strong Saturday bump from family business to bring its weekend total to an estimated $56.2 million. With families making up 72% of its business, split evenly between male and female, and an “A” CinemaScore, the movie should continue to do well between now and Thanksgiving. Big Hero 6 added another $7.6 million in 17 international markets in its third weekend overseas bringing its total outside North America to $23 million.

Meanwhile, Christopher Nolan’s anticipated outer space epic Interstellar (Paramount), starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine and more, opened on Wednesday in select theaters that had film projection capabilities including 70mm IMAX (249 theaters total) where it grossed $2.1 million in advance of its nationwide expansion Thursday night. It ended up with an estimated $50 million over the weekend in 3,561 theaters, averaging $14 thousand per location compared to Big Hero 6‘s $15 thousand. (What’s ironic about the weekend’s hotly-contested box office battle is that both movies had a reported production budget of $165 million.)

Interstellar added another $80 million this weekend in the international territories where it opened, including Korea with $14.1 million on 1,310 screens, the UK with $8.4 million on 1,298 screens, Russia, France, Germany, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and more. It has grossed $132.2 million globally in its opening weekend with key markets like China and Japan still to come.

Nolan’s latest was boosted by his continued relationship with IMAX, grossing $20.6 million in its global IMAX release, beating the previous November IMAX opening record set by last year’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. $13.4 million of its domestic gross can be credited to the 368 domestic IMAX screens which saw sold out showings all weekend. With a per-screen average of over $36,000, IMAX engagements accounted for 19 of the top 20 showings in North America. Internationally, Interstellar grossed $7.2 million on 206 IMAX screens, again with an impressive per-theater average of $35,000 per screen with some territories like Australia and Korea doing as much as $76 thousand per screen.

David Fincher’s Gone Girl (20th Century Fox), starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, showed rare upwards momentum by moving up to third place with $6.1 million (down 28%) after two weeks at #4. It has grossed $145.4 million domestically so far.

It moved ahead of last week’s #1, the low-budget horror film Ouija (Universal), which added another $6 million for a three-week gross of $43.5 million.

The Bill Murray-Melissa McCarthy comedy St. Vincent (The Weinstein Co.) also continued to hold up well in its wide release with $5.7 million in 2,455 theaters for fifth place and a $27.4 million gross so far.

After being defeated in a tight race for the #1 spot in its opening weekend, the Jake Gyllenhaal thriller Nightcrawler (Open Road) had an even tougher second weekend. While it only dropped 47% from its opening weekend take, it was knocked down to #6 as it took on two new blockbusters and the stronger movies still in theaters. It’s grossed just under $20 million so far.

It was just slightly ahead of Brad Pitt’s WWII epic Fury, which added $5.5 million this weekend to bring its domestic total to $69.3 million. The David Ayer-directed movie earned another $7.1 million overseas to bring its international total to $51.5 million.

The Keanu Reeves revenge thriller John Wick (Lionsgate) took eighth place with $4.1 million and has earned a total of just under $35 million.

The last two spots in the Top 10 were filled by the returning family films Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Disney) and the animated The Book of Life (20th Century Fox) with $3.5 and $2.8 million, respectively, the latter dropping over 64% from Halloween weekend. The former has grossed $55 million to the latter’s $42.1 million with one extra week under its belt.

The Top 10 accumulated an estimated $145.7 million, which was down $12 million from this weekend last year when Marvel Studios’ sequel Thor: The Dark World won the weekend with $85.7 million.

The Stephen Hawking story as told in The Theory of Everything (Focus Features), starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, grossed $207 thousand in its opening weekend in 5 theaters in New York and L.A., averaging $41.4 thousand per location. With 62% of its audience being female and high ratings among varying demographics, it should continue to do well as it expands.

Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films.

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Universal is printing money off the success of its $5-million-dollar hit Oujia, and according to Deadline, it looks like Lionsgate wants to use its own occult practices to manifest the original pitch Pentacle, a supernatural thriller from Vertigo Entertainment.

Based on an original pitch by hot Black List screenwriter Ian Fried (Gaslight, The Ever After Murders), Pentacle is described as a dark thriller set in the world of magic, with a style akin to the Amblin films of the ’80s (Gremlins, Poltergeist). Fried currently has his supernatural “Ghostbusters-meets-Call of Duty” action script Spectral lensing in Budapest for Legendary Pictures and director Nic Mathieu for an August 2016 release, while another sci-fi pitch titled Prism is set up at Paramount.

No story details are announced, but a Pentacle is an amulet worn around one’s neck that is used to evoke a spirit or energy during magic rituals, typically with a protective symbol on the reverse side… you know, just in case?

Vertigo’s Roy Lee and Adam Stone will produce along with executive producer John Powers Middleton, all of whom were involved in Gil Kenan’s upcoming Poltergeist remake for MGM and Fox.

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The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.

As the holiday movie season picks up steam from the slower fall months, we went from a weekend with two movies grossing $100 million between them to one where three movies made that amount (and next weekend, one movie should be able to do well above that amount on its own.)

With the movie theater business booming, last week’s big budget blockbusters were transplanted by a comedy sequel twenty years in the making as the Farrelly Brothers reunited Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels for Dumb and Dumber To, which burst into 3,154 theaters with an estimated $38 million. That’s Jim Carrey’s biggest opening weekend since 2003’s Bruce Almighty, which opened with $68 million over Memorial Day, and it’s the Farrelly Brothers’ biggest opening ever, grossing more in its first three days than a few of their recent movies have grossed in total.

The film’s low “B-” CinemaScore doesn’t bode well for the comedy’s long-term prospects although it shouldn’t have a problem hitting $100 million with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up (when it will face another sequel to a more recent comedy hit). According to exit polls, 55% of the audience was male with 57% of the audience over the age of 25.

Both of last week’s new releases held up well in their second weekend with Walt Disney Studios Animation’s Big Hero 6 taking second place with $36 million, down just 36%, and Christopher Nolan’s outer space epic Interstellar (Paramount), taking third place with $29.2 million, down 39%. Reportedly produced for the same $165 million budget, Big Hero 6 remains ahead in making that money back domestically with $111.6 million to date, compared to Interstellar‘s $97.8 million. IMAX is still contributing greatly to Interstellar‘s success with more than $7.4 million of its weekend take grossed from 368 IMAX iterations.

Gina Prince-Blythewood’s music biz romance Beyond the Lights, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Nate Parker, opened softly with $6.5 million in 1,789 theaters to take fourth place with an average of $3,633. That’s a weaker opening than both of Prince-Blythewood’s previous films, 2008’s adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees and 2000’s Love & Basketball.

David Fincher and Gillian Flynn’s adaptation of the latter’s bestselling thriller Gone Girl (20th Century Fox), starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, continues to be one of the unstoppable hits of the fall movie season, as it remained in the Top 5 for its seventh consecutive weekend with $4.6 million, having grossed $152.7 million during that time domestically.

Another surprising fall sleeper is Ted Melfi’s comedy St. Vincent (The Weinstein Co.), starring Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy, which maintained sixth place with $4 million, also down just 25% as it brought its domestic gross to $33.3 million.

Brad Pitt’s WWII epic Fury dropped to seventh place with $3.8 million and $75.9 million grossed domestically so far.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s thriller Nightcrawler (Open Road) took eighth place with $3 million, putting it $13,000 ahead of Universal’s low-budget Ouija, which has grossed $48 million based on a budget of $5 million.

Alejandro Inarritu’s Birman finally moved into the Top 10 as it expanded nationwide into 857 theaters and got a slight bump to $2.4 million with $11.6 million grossed its first month in release.

The Top 10 grossed an estimated $130.7 million, up roughly $15 million from this weekend last year when Universal opened another long-time-coming comedy sequel The Best Man Holiday in 2,024 theaters where it scored $30.1 million, not enough to best Marvel Studios’ Thor: The Dark World in its second weekend.

Jon Stewart’s directorial debut Rosewater, starring Gael Garcia Bernal as imprisoned Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, opened on Friday in 371 theaters where it scored $1.2 million, putting it just outside the Top 12 at #13.

In limited release, Moneyball director Bennett Miller’s latest drama Foxcatcher (Sony Pictures Classics), starring Channing Tatum, Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo, did decently with $288,000 in 6 theaters in New York and L.A.

Tommy Lee Jones’ Western The Homesman (Roadside Attractions), starring fellow Oscar winners Hilary Swank and Meryl Streep, opened weaker with just $48,000 in four theaters in New York and L.A.

Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films.

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After grossing over $70 million worldwide and counting, Universal’s $5-million budgeted horror hit Ouija proved to be yet another low-cost moneymaker from Blumhouse Productions (Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister). Now fans can summon the thrills with a Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD Combo Pack on February 3, and you can check out the new trailer below!

Bonus Features Exclusive to Blu-ray include:

The Spirit Board: An Evolution – Journey back in time and trace the history of “automatic writing” and “talking boards” as it goes from ritual to novelty act to board game and now movie.

Icon of the Unknown – A look at the mystical and scientific explanations for how the Ouija board works.

Bonus Features on the Blu-ray and DVD:

Adapting the Fear – Join the cast and crew on set to learn how they adapted this portal to the spirit world into a feature film.

Directed by Stiles White and starring Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, Bianca Santos, Daren Kagasoff, Vivis Colombetti, Ana Coto and Erin Moriarty, Ouija follows a group of friends who must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board. The film will also be available on Digital HD January 13 (Friday the 13th!).

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