'Jigsaw' Set to Win the Pre-Halloween Weekend
by EG
Some lucky moviegoers in several countries around the world will get to see Thor: Ragnorak this weekend. American audiences, however, will have to choose between another movie in the Saw franchise and a race-themed drama from George Clooney. Jigsaw should have no trouble outpacing Clooney's Suburbicon as American moviegoers, for the most part, wait for Thor's domestic release next week.
Get ready for horror to once again top the North American box office, while George Clooney's star-studded, dark satire Suburbicon may find little pre-Halloween love from audiences.
Lionsgate's fright-fest Jigsaw — reviving the marquee Saw franchise — is the clear favorite to win the weekend with a debut of $20 million or more from 2,800 theaters, including Imax locations. Horror has been the big headline of the 2017 box office so far, led by New Line's blockbuster It.
The biggest headline, however, will be overseas, where Marvel Studios and Disney's Thor: Ragnorak opens in numerous markets a week ahead of its Nov. 3 domestic debut. The first superhero film of the fall could easily take in $100 million in its offshore launch.
Directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, Jigsaw picks up a decade after the death of the eponymous murderer as police investigate a rash of slayings matching Jigsaw's signature moves. Matt Passmore, Callum Keith Rennie, Cle Bennett and Hannah Emily Anderson star in the R-rated movie, which hasn't yet been screened for critics. (The marketing campaign for Jigsaw included a national blood drive that collected over 125,000 pints.)
In 2010, Saw 3D was billed as the final chapter in the Saw series, but Lionsgate decided to have another go.
Suburbicon, despite high-profile stops at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, is tracking to open in the $5 million-$7 million range from 2,045 theaters. If so, that would mark the worst wide opening of Clooney's directing career, as well as one of the weakest starts for leading man Matt Damon, who stars opposite Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac.
The racially tinged film, from a script by Clooney, Grant Heslov and the Coen brothers, tells the story of a seemingly perfect white family whose suburban home is invaded in the summer of 1959. Their not-so-nice side is exposed when their new African-American neighbors are blamed for the crime.
Read the rest of the preview at The Hollywood Reporter.
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