Updated 9:20 a.m. PT Saturday
"The Devil Inside" wildly overperformed on Friday, taking $16.9 million and knocking "MIssion: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" out of the top spot at the box office.
Considering the movie had a budget of less than $1 million, the number is stunning. Paramount had expected "Devil" would gross $8 million for the entire weekend. Outside box-office watchers put that figure at $12 million to $14 million. And BoxOffice.com predicted $23 million.
The scary movie is on track to exceed even that. With a $16.9 million opening Friday, "The Devil Inside" could close the weekend with nearly $40 million.
It took $2 million at midnight showings alone.
On Friday, nothing else came close to "Devil." Paramount's "M:I:4," which had ruled the box office, took $6.2 million, and the Warner Bros. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" took $4.3 million. Both those movies are now in their fourth week of release.
While the R-rated "Devil" is drawing surprisingly large audiences, it is hardly universally beloved. Slightly more audience members gave the movie an "F" -- 19 percent -- as an "A" -- 16 percent, according to the polling firm Cinemascore. Most audience members gave it a disappointing "C" or a miserable "D" -- 24 percent and 23 percent, respectively.
And critics clearly hate it: Its Rotten Tomatoes score is only 7 percent.
Also read: Review: In Stupid 'Devil Inside,' Beelzebub Is the New Cooties
Those numbers are a bad omen for the movie's success past its opening weekend. But with a nearly $17 million opening Friday, the movie has built a buzz beyond hard-core horror fans. With no other new movies opening in wide release this weekend, viewers who have already seen holdovers are checking it out.
Unsurprisingly, the movie skews young and male: 59 percent of the audience was younger than 25 and 85 percent was younger than 34. Men made up 54 percent of viewers.
With the success of "Devil," Paramount has the No. 1, 2 and 8 movies at the domestic box office. "The Adventures of Tintin" grossed $1.7 million on Friday.
Earlier:
With only one new movie opening in wide release, this weekend is shaping up to be “catch-up” time at the multiplex – a chance for audiences to see films they’ve been meaning to watch, but haven’t had the opportunity.
But there’s a twist.
While “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” likely will spend its last weekend at the top of the box office – there is a chance “The Devil Inside,” an R-rated horror film from Paramount – could knock it off its perch.
Even at No. 2, Paramount has a winner with “Devil.” It cost just under $1 million to make, and the studio is projecting that it will take in $8 million over the weekend. Outside box-office watchers say that Paramount is low-balling: The most conservative among industry experts put the number at $12 million to $16 million and BoxOffice.com
