SAW II Takes Top Notch for Halloween Weekend Box Office

The surprisingly strong performance of Lions Gate's horror flick Saw II gave shares in the Canadian-based company an 8 percent boost Monday, cutting almost in half the stock's year-to-date loss of 16 percent.

Saw II opened with $31.7 million in ticket sales, much of it derived from teenagers getting into the mood for Halloween. The film cost an estimated $4 million to make. Second place went to The Legend of Zorro, starring Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The film took in a middling $16.3 million but is expected to have strong sales on DVD. Two other new releases fared poorly. Prime, starring Uma Thurman and Meryl Street, placed third with $6.2 million, while The Weather Man, starring Nicolas Cage, drew a paltry $4.2 million.

Overall sales for the top 12 films dropped 6.5 percent to $86.3 million from the comparable weekend last year.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. Saw II , Lions Gate, $31,725,652, (New);
2. The Legend of Zorro, Sony, $16,328,506, (New);
3. Prime, Universal, $6,220,935, (New);
4. Dreamer: Inspired By a True Story, DreamWorks, $6,132,856, 2 Wks. ($17,374,339);
5. Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, DreamWorks, $4,302,316, 4 Wks. ($49,694,983);
6. The Weather Man, Paramount, 4,248,465, (New);
7. Doom, Universal, $4,228,385, 2 Wks. ($23,034,930);
8. North Country, Warner Bros., 3,560,238, 2 Wks. ($12,109,718);
9. The Fog, Screen Gems, $3,108,668, 3 Wks. ($25,311,280);
10. Flightplan, Disney, $2,727,697, 6 Wks. ($81,277,630).