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Why are aliens always so mean?

Kim Hollis: The Fourth Kind, the Universal release that wound up drafting off of Paranormal Activity's box office tidal wave, opened to $12.2 million. How should the distributor feel about this result?

George Rose: They should be thrilled. It felt like recycled product and it came out the weekend after Halloween. Sure, the distributor didn't know Paranormal Activity and its $11,000 budget would turn into a $100 million blockbuster, or they hopefully wouldn't have scheduled the two so close together. However, why in their right mind would they release this the week after Halloween? They must have thought Saw VI was going to be so bad that the audience would be begging for a decent horror movie, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Saw VI was, in fact, horrible and barely made money but because of the success of Paranormal Activity the distributors of Fourth Kind will have to take whats been given to them with a smile on their face. This is just too little, too late, and anything over $10 million is a victory.

Josh Spiegel: I'm sure Universal was hoping for more business a la Paranormal Activity, but with the exception of that movie, I think audiences are ready for a little break at the movie theaters when it comes to horror movies. Moreover, I think the advertising reminded some of White Noise (well, it reminded me of White Noise), not something more potentially frightening like Paranormal Activity. Still, all things considered, the result could've been a lot worse.

Reagen Sulewski: I definitely think a thank you card is in order to the producers of Paranormal Activity. I think there were a significant portion of that film's audience who were looking for something a little more slickly produced along the same lines, and this gave it to them.





Kim Hollis: I think this movie was doomed to $5 million or less until it rode Paranormal Activity's coattails, so Universal has to be pretty thrilled that it's over $10 million. It's going to make the bulk of its revenue on DVD anyway.

Michael Lynderey: Universal should feel pretty good. I could go with the old saw about how PG-13 horror has been doing much better, etc., but I think it's a commendable performance regardless. Truly something out of nothing - a fairly bland-looking movie that could've gone direct-to-video, but instead stuck around and beat up on the much more prestigious The Box. And if anything, the passing resemblance to Paranormal Activity could've hurt it, branding it a copycat (however absurdly). Getting one good weekend out of this was almost certainly the best case scenario, and the movie delivered in that context.

Jason Lee: Considering the glut of horror films over the past month (Paranormal, Saw VI, The Step Father, etc.), I think this almost certainly has to be a win for Universal. This could have easily felt like the less-pretty step-sister of Paranormal Activity in terms of a "fake-real" horror film.

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