Lionsgate/CBS Films

February will see plenty of major releases entering the box office, but it won’t happen this weekend with most distributors choosing not to compete with Super Bowl Sunday. The only wide release coming this weekend is Lionsgate/CBS Films’ horror film “Winchester,” which isn’t expected to pass “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” or “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle” for the top spots.

Trackers have “Winchester” opening to $6-8 million, which should put it on the lower end of the top five for the weekend. “Death Cure” and “Jumanji” will go head-to-head for the top spots, with “Jumanji” potentially taking the top spot if “Death Cure” falls off the way its “Maze Runner” predecessors have. In September 2015, “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” opened to $30 million and fell 53 percent in its second week to $14.2 million.

Also Read: 'Jumanji' Passes 'Wonder Woman' at Global Box Office

If “Death Cure” has a similar drop, it’s looking at a second weekend total of $10-11 million, a number “Jumanji” could match in its seventh weekend if it continues to hold as it has so far during its exceptional run. “Jumanji” made $16.1 million last weekend, just 17 percent down from the $19.5 million it made the weekend before.

On the limited release side, Sony Pictures Classics will release Sebastian Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman,” one of the nominees for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, on five screens in New York and Los Angeles this weekend. It stars Daniela Vega as Marina, a transgender Chilean woman whose life takes a hard turn when her 57-year-old soulmate Orlando (Francisco Reyes) suddenly dies of an aneurysm. Her struggle to cope with his loss is compounded by a brewing conflict with Orlando’s family, who refuse to let her attend the funeral since she is transgender. The film currently has an 88 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Winchester” stars Helen Mirren as Sarah Winchester, widow of famed rifle manufacturer William Winchester, in a horror tale based on the true story of how Winchester spent the fortune she inherited from her husband on the expansive Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, Calif. Construction of the house, which is filled with staircases to nowhere and maze-like corridors, continued until Winchester’s death in 1922, with the widow claiming that she was being haunted by the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles. Michael and Peter Spierig (“Jigsaw”) directed the film from a script they co-wrote with Tom Vaughan.

All 8 'Saw' Movies, Ranked From Worst to Best (Photos)

"Do you want to play a game?" With that seemingly innocuous proposition, "Saw" started a phenomenon, with many a body part severed, several gallons of blood spilled, and more than $950 million grossed worldwide. Jigsaw, the diabolical villain who subjects his victims to torturous moral “tests” and games, returns Oct. 27 for his self-titled film, following a seven-year hiatus from the screen. After a reverse bear trap, a Venus flytrap, a weird see-saw and other contraptions, we’re excited to see what else the minds behind "Jigsaw" have up their sleeves. In the mean time, we've ranked the films that started the torture-porn craze.
Lionsgate
8. "Saw IV" (2007): The first of the "Saw" films that thought it would be a good idea to have multiple timelines. The results were about as clean and polished an execution as any of the rotting corpses in Jigsaw’s lair. What is even going on here anymore?
Lionsgate
7. "Jigsaw" (2017): That a seven-year wait for Jigsaw’s return had so little payoff is why the most recent film in the franchise is this far down on the list. With mediocre traps, boring characters, and a plot twist that is less ludicrous and more unsurprising than is par for the course for the series, "Jigsaw"’s biggest issue is that it doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. It’s listless.

Also Read: Can ‘Jigsaw’ Revive Torture Horror at the Box Office?
Lionsgate
6. "Saw V" (2008): As the series strayed away from the immediacy of Jigsaw’s moral ethos on victims and re-framed him as a kind of cult-like savior, the films began to run out of steam. Its twists and turns begin to feel contrived and, worse, dull.
Lionsgate
5. "Saw VI" (2009): One of franchise's ongoing preoccupations is with the unfairness of the pharmaceutical-medical-industrial complex. And while that's an interesting challenge for a horror film, there isn’t enough depth here for us to really care.
Lionsgate
4. "Saw: The Final Chapter" (2010): It’s a "finale," so all things are ramped up to 11. This deep into the franchise, the bombast or weird contrived plot reversals had become far less enjoyable, but the final "Saw" (until 2017) goes all in.
Lionsgate
3."Saw II" (2005): The first sequel to "Saw" sticks its victims in a deadly funhouse, in a rewrite of Darren Lynn Bousman’s unsold script "The Desperate." As the eight victims -- including "Saw" alumna Amanda (Shawnee Smith) -- inhale a deadly gas in search of an antidote, they must confront the worst of their fears and the best of Jigsaw’s traps, including a Chinese fingertrap made out of razor-blades.
Lionsgate
2. "Saw III" (2006): It's perhaps the only film of the franchise to have a realistic emotional center, with Tobin Bell's John Kramer/Jigsaw bedridden from cancer, employing a bereaved doctor to perform surgery on him. Shockingly, "Saw III" becomes a potent examination of grief and forgiveness in a way that the series hasn’t bested since.
Lionsgate
1. "Saw" (2004): The original is, of course, the best, with its simple, insular world, its impressive performance from Cary Elwes, and its delightfully sadistic premise. "Saw" is beautifully contained, but its (admittedly fascistic) sense of morality casts a long shadow over the franchise.
Lionsgate

1 of 9

Where does “Jigsaw” rank in the popular horror franchise?

"Do you want to play a game?" With that seemingly innocuous proposition, "Saw" started a phenomenon, with many a body part severed, several gallons of blood spilled, and more than $950 million grossed worldwide. Jigsaw, the diabolical villain who subjects his victims to torturous moral “tests” and games, returns Oct. 27 for his self-titled film, following a seven-year hiatus from the screen. After a reverse bear trap, a Venus flytrap, a weird see-saw and other contraptions, we’re excited to see what else the minds behind "Jigsaw" have up their sleeves. In the mean time, we've ranked the films that started the torture-porn craze.

View In Gallery