Weekend Box Office (10/23/11): Paranormal Activity 3 scores record October debut with $52.6 million (but it's not the top horror opening).

Despite what everyone else is reporting, Paranormal Activity 3 (review) did not set a record this weekend for the biggest opening for a horror film.  Lest we forget, Hannibal (review) opened with $58 million in February of 2001, which was actually the biggest R-rated opening ever at the time.  Anyway, Paramount's threequel/prequel will have to settle with merely being the second- biggest horror debut ever, the eighth-biggest R-rated opening, and the top October launch.  Tragic, I know. The $5 million film grossed a massive $54 million this weekend, which is a 29% jump from Paranormal Activity 2's $40.6 million opening this time last year.  The film had a massively front loaded weekend, the ninth-biggest on record, with a mere 2.02x weekend multiplier.  Still, that was better than the 2.01x weekend multiplier for Paranormal Activity 2 last year (the sixth-smallest such multiplier).  The picture played 53% under-25 and 54% female.  Considering the film pulled just in $1.7 million more at midnight, the $26 million opening day (around $6 million more than Paranormal Activity 2's $20.6 million Friday) and $12 million jump in total opening weekend compared to the last film, there is a clear growth in this series.

Review: Paul W.S. Anderson's The Three Musketeers (2011) makes the (underrated) Disney version look like The Mask of Zorro.

The Three Musketeers
2011
110 minutes
rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

What is most unexpected about this umpteenth version of the Alexander Dumas novel is how generic it feels. Despite the use of 3D (FYI - I watched this film in glorious 2D) and a few bits of Mila Jovovich choreography, this movie could very well have been made in 1993 or 2001, which is when of course the last two stabs at this story were released.  It's the general same plot as always, with a few bits of the comparatively faithful Richard Lester versions from 1973 and 1974 thrown in (the last two didn't spent much time on stolen jewelry), and lacking any real visual reinvention that would make it stand out.  The lack of anything 'new' wouldn't be as much of a problem if the ingredients weren't so half-baked.  But Paul W.S. Anderson's The Three Musketeers is pretty much just another mediocre adaptation.  It's better than The Musketeer (IE - Three Musketeers with a bit of wire-kung fu), but that's not saying much.  At best, it makes one realize how good that oft-maligned Disney adaptation from 1993 really was.  Stephen Herek's all-star version may have been overtly kid-friendly, but it got the basics right.  As always, if you don't like the actual Musketeers, you aren't going to get much out of their adventure.