Paranormal Activity 4 scares up enough business to take the top spot at the US box office

I can't lie.  The entire found footage genre of films is a mystery to me.  They're still a novelty, gimmick filled experience.  Even the best ones are, for me, marginally entertaining.  The success of the Paranormal Activity franchise defies all rational logic and reason. And yet, Paramount's annual found footage cash grab nabbed the top spot at North American theaters with an estimated $30 million in ticket sales. I'm still trying to figure out the repeated success of this series.  If any regular readers would like to weigh in, by all means.  I'm desperate for some perspective here.

I understand the metrics behind it.  Spending $6 million and getting $200 million back is a no brainer.  From a business perspective it makes a ridiculous amount of sense.  Paramount had a similar formula for years with the Friday the 13th series.  And yes, those films shared some similar redundancies.  But am I the only person who feels like every Paranormal Activity is the same basic film?  The entire experiment seems predicated on having an infinite amount of build up and a tiny morsel of payoff.  The fact that the horror genre has devolved into such toothless, sanitized drivel is kind of depressing.

Maybe that's why I was so invigorated by that choppy, handheld footage from the Evil Dead remake.  It feels like the horror genre is ripe for someone to come in and curbstomp the hell out these pale imitations of scary movies.

Ben Affleck's exceptional Argo had one of the strongest week to week holds all year dropping just 14% and making $16 million in its second weekend.  This bodes well for the crowd pleaser's award potential. There's a chance this one could get to $100 million.  That kind of box office would almost guarantee a Best Picture Academy Award nomination.

Taken 2 and Hotel Transylvania continue to hold strong with their respective demographics, both pulling in a hair over $13 million.  Tyler Perry's attempt at crossing over from the cross dressing, Alex Cross, limped to the finish line in fifth place with $12 million.  The good news - he's still a license to print money as long at the word 'Madea" appears in the title.

Next weekend brings three diverse films.  There's the much anticipated Wachowski / Twyker adaptation of Cloud Atlas [read our review here], the far less anticipated horror sequel Silent Hill: Revelation, and the Halloween comedy FunSize, which seems to be eliciting more dread than anticipation.  See you next week.

Here's your top films for North America:

1. Paranormal Activity 4
Weekend Estimate: $30 million

2. Argo
Weekend Estimate: $16 million; $43 million

3. Taken 2
Weekend Estimate: $13.3 million; $103 million total

4. Hotel Transylvania
Weekend Estimate: $13.2 million; $118 million total

5. Alex Cross
Weekend Estimate: $12 million

Anghus Houvouras