Saw franchise: $874M worldwide on a budget of $65M (average $125M gross/$11M budget per film).

Paranormal Activity franchise: $812M worldwide on a budget of $19M (average $163M gross/$4M budget per film).

... and I'm only including the Paramount films in that last figure, I have no idea how much the Japanese spin-off made (even if it uses the franchise's continuity).

I meant better finish as the last movie will make more money, not the overall game. Saw movies, outside the first, were never that cheap to make. Plus, if Saw comes back, with Wan's new found fame, overall, Saw will finish out ahead.

I'd rather have a thousand more PA movies than have even one more Saw get made. What an awful franchise. Even the original was terrible.

No, no it wasn't.

Yep, it definitely was. Trite shock bullshit. And we're stuck with James Wan as a result. Fuck Saw.

I wouldn't say we are stuck with James Wan because of Saw. Dude did director two films afterwards that flopped. Basically took him 6 more years after Saw to get another hit. Shocked he actually got other chances. I can see why people dislike Saw (like why people hate Blair Witch, zombie films, Paranormal Activity, etc) but it did change the game for a bit.

No

I like the original Saw, it's a fun movie that did a lot with a $1.2m budget, and I like James Wan in general. I also like Leigh Whannell (especially in Cooties).

The true hack to come out of that franchise was Darren Lynn Bousman. And while Saw 2 was somewhat watchable, his other 2 were just horrible (but mostly, I'm tired of people praising his fucking horrible rock opera gore flicks)

Paranormal Activity had novel and somewhat interesting first and third movies. The 2nd was terrible, the Marked Ones was terrible, and I forgot that a 4th one even existed. The biggest problem is this fanchise has zero re-watchability, this entry looks like it's trying to fix that with an abundance of CG-laden jump scares.

After seeing more and more of this film (trailers, tv spots, etc..) I'm really losing interest. It doesn't look to be all that good, I mean I said the same thing about the marked ones and actually enjoyed that one a lot so who knows.

I'm not into the apparition they created at all looks way too campy and half-assed.

Oh and about the saw flicks...I remember loving the original when it came out..nice gore and it was a great Halloween flick, would never watch it again now though - ALL the sequels were terrible, loved how you could see and feel the budget shrinking with each new entry.

Wan is a good director. I haven't seen F&F, because I hate that franchise but everything else he's directed has been cool.

Agreed. That fucking franchise can't seem to get to the fucking point. There's seems to be no origin story to tell and relying on the "it just is" factor is dull 5 fucking movies in.

Cheap scares, bad acting and a ridiculous plot. Yeah the original is pretty bad, almost shut it off a couple of times. No desire to see any of the sequels.

So, what does everyone think of this next and last PA?

Wait, what?

II only cost $3M. III - VI cost $10M each. 3D cost $17M. For entries II - V, they made their budgets back and then some like halfway through opening day. It wasn't until the misfire of VI (due to the release of Paranormal Activity 2) that the franchise was just not as profitable. Also, the first few Saw films were released on DVD during the height of the format. Who knows how much Lionsgate made there too.

I also didn't know why Paramount was doing this whole rushed VOD strategy until I read about Hot Tub Time Machine 2. Paramount controlled theatrical and home video rights whereas MGM controlled digital rights. MGM rushed the film to VOD after being ejected out of theaters completely and it ended up doing $40M digitally compared to the $12M it did theatrically.

I don't get why they would choose a Paranormal Activity sequel to do it with; especially the entry that is 3D. If the entry is good and there's solid WOM, it would probably do more than the last two entries (4 did $54M domestically, The Marked Ones did $33M domestically).

But, what do I know? I'll see it next week as I already saw all these fucking films in theaters.

As long as its in 300+ theaters it stays off VOD. Once it drops below that, its 17 days to VOD, so it sort of makes sense on both ends.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 dropped to sub 300 theaters on its fourth weekend. Paranormal Activity 4 on its sixth weekend. The Marked Ones on its fifth.

The earliest we could possibly see the film on VOD is the weekend of December 4th. Latest might be the weekend before Christmas.

You're part of the problem, brah.

$10M for a horror film isn't that cheap when discussing these types of films. That was my point. Wasn't talking about how much Lionsgate made, but just the cost itself for the film is expensive compared to others.

The Marked Ones? It added more to the overall story, but it ended up leaving even more questions to be answered. That web series leading up to PA4 didn't help much either but it was interesting at the time, I just wish they would flesh out the story more. There is a lot of footage that ends up not being used and only appears in extra features, and I get that creating mystery keeps us watching but by the fourth film I was starting to get annoyed.

I didn't see 4 or 5, but by the end of the third I definitely felt they were suffering from The X-Files syndrome, drawing out the initial mystery by adding more and more layers without ever offering satisfying conclusions or answers.

It sounds like dropping profits were the only reason they decided to offer any answers at all. The question is will I need to see 4 and 5 for this one to make sense?

Based upon the trailers, no. It looks as if the new family moved into Katie and Kristie's old house (as seen in PA3). I wouldn't be surprised if they skipped over the events of PA4 and The Marked Ones.

I would say you should see Marked Ones because there was a little surprise there that will probably be tied towards the last one. Hated part 4 which didn't do much to the story. Marked Ones did add a bit, though.

Well The Marked Ones provided one key in the entire plot: Time and space mean nothing, so while you can guess it will "skip" over those two movies, I would not count on it.

I think The Marked Ones may be on Netflix, so I can give that a watch.

Marked Ones went away with the EPIX purge last month, it's on Hulu (Subscription) and Amazon now.