‘Tis the season to be frightened.
Hoping to cash in on the Halloween zeitgeist, Hollywood studios are flooding the market with horror films. This weekend alone will bring four movies from the genre -- “Let Me In,” “Case 39,” “Chain Letter,” and “Hatchet II.” And 7 more are on the way in the next month.
(See slideshow: "Fright-Full: Horror Movies On Tap for October")
Over the next few weeks, in fact, nearly every third film released will fit squarely into the horror category.
“We haven’t seen anything like this for some time. They have a stranglehold on this season,” Jeff Bock, a box-office analyst with Exhibitor Relations, told TheWrap. “All this crowding is going to be a bad thing. There’s a real chopping block for these movies, and they usually fall off the charts within two to three weeks of their release.”
Produced for $20 million, “Let Me In” and “Case 39” will open wide on more than 2,000 screens apiece. “Hatchet II” and “Chain Letter” are ultra low-budget films and will roll out in a limited way on 100 and 400 theaters, respectively.
The horror pile-up is poised to continue throughout the month. In short order, studios will serve horror fans a steady diet of torture porn and chillers, with “My Soul to Take,” “Paranormal Activity 2” and “Saw 3D” vying for space on marquees in the coming weeks -- and those are only the wide releases.
All this competition in one genre is something of an anomaly. Traditionally, studios tend to put more distance between similarly themed films.
As if things couldn’t get any more heated, box office analysts speculate that “The Social Network” with its tech heavy premise and gross-out comedy “Jack-Ass 3D” may further fragment the teen audience horror films need to succeed.
Historically, when horror movies have gone head-to-head, the result hasn’t been pretty.
In August 2009, “The Final Destination” squared off against “Halloween II.” “Destination” claimed the top spot with $27.4 million, while “Halloween II” did a respectable $16.4 million (not bad, but a far cry from the $26 million opening its predecessor enjoyed in 2007).
But the mother of all standoffs may have been the one that took place in October 2009 between “Saw VI” and “Paranormal Activity.” In its first week of wide release, “Paranormal” racked up $21 million. That took a huge chunk out of “Saw”s’ gross.
The latest installment in the horror franchise made $14 million, a staggering drop from the $30 million debut part five enjoyed the year before.
“Saw”s’ relative failure may have emboldened other studios to move into October, a month that previously used to be Jigsaw’s fiefdom, box-office analysts say.
“Last year the king was dethroned, and now it’s open season,” Phil Contrino, an analyst with BoxOffice.com, told TheWrap.
Overall, fewer horror movies were released this year than in 2009 -- some 15 compared to the 18 wide releases in last year.
