The Saw franchise is officially in the upper stratosphere of horror films–if the measuring stick is dollar signs.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw–the ninth installment in the franchise–repeated as box office champ this past weekend and, in so doing, nudged the long-running series past the $1-billion mark globally, as reported by Variety.
Despite a relatively slow weekend–as moviegoers gear up for the big Memorial Day holiday–Spiral pulled in $4.6 million domestically over the three-day period, bringing its box office total to nearly $16 million.
The nine-film Saw series joins The Conjuring, Alien and Resident Evil franchises in horror’s billion-dollar blockbuster penthouse.
Spiral–from Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures–is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman from a screenplay by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger. The film–starring Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, Max Minghella and Marisol Nichols–follows Det. Zeke Banks, the son of a famous police chief, as he sets out on a “grisly investigation into murders that are eerily reminiscent of the city’s gruesome past.”
The multi-film phenomenon began with the original 2004 Saw, directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell. That first movie grossed a whopping $104 million worldwide on a budget of just $1.2 million.
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