Saw X Scores Franchise's Best Box Office Debut In Well Over A Decade (But It Still Lost To Paw Patrol)
Coming off of a big summer led by the Barbenheimer phenomenon as both "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" made more money than anyone could have possibly expected, the fall moviegoing season has, thus far, been a little disappointing. But September gave way to October this past weekend with a trio of big releases hitting theaters in the form of "Saw X," "Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie," and the original sci-fi film "The Creator" (read our review here). It was, all at once, an encouraging result in some ways and a disappointing one for those who want to see more adult-skewing, non-horror fare in theaters.
While it was pegged as a close race heading into the weekend, the family-friendly flick won out with relative ease. "Paw Patrol" topped the charts with a mighty $23 million opening, per The Numbers. "Saw X" had to settle for second with $18 million. That said, it's still a big win for the franchise and another big win for horror overall. It has been the most reliable genre since the pandemic began and that streak continues. For Lionsgate, coming in at number one didn't matter all that much, save for bragging rights, as the tenth film in the gory series came with a very reasonable $13 million budget. Coupled with $11.3 million from overseas ticket sales, the movie is already well on its way to profitability.
Looking at the larger franchise, Jigsaw's latest round of twisted games gave "Saw" its best opening weekend in well over a decade, dating back to the release of 2010's "Saw 3D," aka "The Final Chapter" ($24.2 million opening/$133.7 global finish). Tobin Bell's return as John Kramer as a main character helped push "Saw X" above both 2017's "Jigsaw" ($16.6 million opening/$104.2 million global finish) and 2021's "Spiral: From the Book of Saw" ($8.7 million opening/$39.5 million global finish).
Paw Patrol to the rescue
Interestingly, "Saw X" had an almost identical opening weekend to the original "Saw" in 2004, which opened to $18.2 million and gave way to what was an annual horror tradition for the better part of a decade. It's now a $1 billion franchise (and counting). It's very easy to imagine Lionsgate getting the band back together for "Saw 11," and the producers were already thinking about that before opening weekend. Rest assured, they'll be thinking about it a little harder now.
Circling back to "Paw Patrol," the sequel to 2021's first big screen film within the franchise seems poised to be an even bigger success than its predecessor. That $23 million opening represents a pretty huge increase over 2021's "Paw Patrol: The Movie," which opened to $13.1 million domestically en route to a $40.1 million finish. Most importantly though, that movie played very well overseas to the tune of $111.2 million, giving it a $151.4 million global tally. This to say, things look quite good for "The Mighty Movie" in the early going, with the sequel taking in another $23 million internationally for a $46 million global start.
The other important thing is that Paramount is making these on the cheap, with the budget for "Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie" pegged at just $30 million. Similarly, the studio produced "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" for just $70 million. Thriftiness and animation are good bedfellows. Family-friendly movies, as of late, have had long legs at the box office so this movie's outlook is healthy. Not to mention that, given how obscenely popular "Paw Patrol" has become, these movies should be profitable not just in terms of ticket sales, but through providing merchandising sales with a boost as well. In other words, this is a home run for Paramount.
Not quite Barbenheimer, but the same point was made
Unfortunately, director Gareth Edwards' visually impressive "The Creator" was left out in the cold, settling for a third-place finish with just $14 million. Granted, it did better overseas, pulling in $18.3 million for a $32.3 million global start, but that's not going to be nearly enough to help make this a hit for Disney. Edwards, the man behind "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," was amazingly thrifty for a blockbuster of this scale, making "The Creator" for just $80 million. At that budget level, though, an opening in this range is at best rough and at worst a death sentence.
Similarly disappointing was Sony's "Dumb Money," which chronicles the GameStop stock saga (read our review here). The film expanded wide over the weekened and audiences hardly cared as it earned just $3.3 million against a $30 million budget. After a couple of weeks in limited release, its total now stands at $7.1 million. Not a great weekend for adult-skewing, non-franchise movies.
Be that as it may, the industry can take away a lesson in counter-programming here, as both "Paw Patrol" and "Saw X" were able to thrive and not get in the way of one another seemingly at all. There's something to be said about "The Creator" and "Dumb Money" suffering for rolling out this weekend but, crucially, there is easily room for more than one big movie per weekend in 2023 and beyond as long as they're not gunning for the exact same crowd. Barbenheimer proved it in a big, flashy way, but Saw Patrol did a fine job of illustrating the point on a smaller scale as well.
"Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie" and "Saw X" are both in theaters now.