"Scary Movie," Frightening Box Office

Scary Movie 3 chuckled up some boffo box office: The third installment in the horror-lampooning franchise tallied a frightening $48.1 million, according to final studio figures released Monday, and set the record for the best-ever October opening.

The arrival of the PG-13 Dimension release, which parodies such hit spookfests as The Sixth Sense and Signs, was a big pre-Halloween boo-boo for last week's number one, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which dropped 48 percent to second place with $14.5 million.

But the carve-'em-up remake still placed ahead of the Cuba Gooding, Jr.-Ed Harris feel-good flick Radio. The PG Sony release, based on a real-life tale of a mentally challenged man overcoming prejudice with the help of a football coach, opened with a fairly decent $13.3 million in third.

At 1,798 sites--considerably fewer than the 3,000-plus for each of the top three movies--Beyond Borders was beyond saving, earning just $2.1 million in 11th place. The R-rated Paramount release teams Oscar winner Angelina Jolie and British glamour guy Clive Owen as romantically involved famine-relief workers--apparently not exactly must-see viewing in a weekend dominated by popcorn-crunchers.

In limited release, the new hand-drawn G-rated Disney 'toon Brother Bear, featuring the voices of Joaquin Phoenix as the ursine boy and Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as a pair of doofus moose, and songs by Phil Collins, had a cuddly debut, gathering in $291,940 at just two sites.

Also opening promisingly at just a half-dozen sites each were Meg Ryan's killer thriller In the Cut and Gus Van Sant's high-school drama Elephant. The former, an R-rated Screen Gems release featuring Ryan playing against her cutesy image, averated $16,271 per screen for a total of $97,625. The latter, Fine Line's R-rated fictionalized look at a Columbine-style tragedy Release that won Van Sant the the Cannes Palme d'Or, averaged $15,559 per screen for a total of $93,356.

Among the top 10, Scary Movie 3 scored the best per-screen numbers, averaging $13,727 at 3,505 sites. The installment was directed by David Zucker and features a cast that includes Charlie Sheen and his missus Denise Richards, Pamela Anderson, Queen Latifah, Anthony Anderson, Camryn Manheim and, upping the silliness quotient, Leslie Nielsen.

Scary Movie 3's softer rating and the Zucker name tag apparently broadened the sequel's appeal over that of the previous R-rated Scarys directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans. The latest entry was bigger than the $42.3 million debut of the hugely successful Scary Movie in 2000, and way, way ahead of the less hilarious Scary Movie 2, which opened last year with $20.5 million. In becoming the biggest October debut in Hollywood history, the latest sequel beat the real scary cannibal thriller Red Dragon, which earned $36.5 million last year. The parody flick also clocked in as the seventh best opening of 2003.

Zucker is already at work on Scary Movie 4, which is due out next year.

Despite its steep drop-off, New Line's gruesome Texas Chainsaw Massacre is scaring up some serious profit. The low-budget slasher rehash has grossed $50.9 million in its two weeks of release.

Clint Eastwood's Mystic River continued to do steady business, holding in fifth place with $7.8 million and a $5,216 average. The potential Oscar contender has a three-week take of $24.7 million.

Taking a step dive was Quentin Tarantino's bloody Kill Bill: Volume 1 (an ideal target for the Scary Movie makers' next spoof), which dropped 49 percent, falling from second to seventh with $6.4 million. Its three-week gross now stands at $54 million. In its fourth week of release, Out of Time dropped out of the top 10, down to 12th place from last week's eighth spot. The Denzel Washington cop thriller earned $1.5 million this weekend and has grossed $37.8 million so far.

According to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations, the top 12 movies this 44nd weekend of the year tallied $120 million. So it was another up weekend for overall business, a gain of 16 percent from last weekend and 37 percent over this time last year, when the prankster flick Jackass was tops.

Here's a rundown of the top 10:

1. Scary Movie 3, $48.1 million
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, $14.5 million
3. Radio, $13.3 million
4. Runaway Jury, $8.4 million
5. Mystic River, $7.8 million
6. School of Rock, $6.5 million
7. Kill Bill: Volume 1, $6.4 million
8. Good Boy!, $5.1 million
9. Intolerable Cruelty, $3.6 million
10. Under the Tuscan Sun, $2.3 million

(Originally published October 26, 2003 at 2:10 p.m. PT.)