Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Paranormal Activity vs. Saw: Round 2! Fight!



Remember what happened last year when Paranormal Activity and Saw faced off? The upstart film kicked the Jigsaw's ass pretty handily. Activity scared up nearly $200M worldwide, becoming something of a phenomenon here in the US. Saw VI on the other hand creaked to the lowest gross of the entire franchise, bringing in roughly $62M worldwide. Pretty lousy.  Now it looks like the two will be squaring off for a second time, but will the results be the same?

Variety is reporting that Paramount Pictures is keen to hit a release date of October 22nd, which puts it on a head-on collision with Saw VII 3-D. All this was pushed into fast forward after the hiring of Kip Williams(The Door in the Floor) to helm the project. Kevin Greutart was previously selected to direct Paranormal Activity 2, but an option in his contract exercised by Lionsgate prevented that. Ironically, Greutart is now the man directing Saw VII, so these two franchises have been playing petty games against eachother for quite awhile. 

There's only room for one horror franchise to stand tall at a time, especially during the Halloween season. Last year it was Paranormal Activity's turn to be the top dawg, but I'm guessing Saw reclaims it's rightful position this time around. PA2 isn't going to have the same grassroots momentum of the first, when people were lined up at midnight screenings like they were being let in to some secretive nightclub nobody knows about. This one is a pure studio effort, which puts it in more direct competition with Saw, which has the benefit of familiarity(and a recognizable central character) on it's side.

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