High School Musical 3 and Saw Kill the Competition
Saw V and High School Musical 3
Disney’s much-hyped High School Musical 3: Senior Year and Lionsgate’s Saw V took over the top spots at the box office over the weekend according to early box office numbers Sunday, opening with $42 million and $30.5 million, respectively.
The top two films made some records happen with their first weekend showings. HSM 3 nabbed the most successful musical crown from Mamma Mia! Meanwhile, Lionsgate’s Saw franchise is within $2 million of eclipsing hockey-masked Jason's Friday the 13th to become the top-grossing horror series ever, reports Variety.
High School also raked in $40 million from 22 overseas markets. At $82 million, it was the first worldwide No. 1 opener since The Dark Knight.
"You’d never know we were supposed to be in a recession when you see two openings like this," said Steve Rothenberg, head of Lionsgate’s distribution. "When Hollywood offers up a choice, the audience can really expand."
There were not such strong performances from second week releases Max Payne and W. Max felt some serious pain, falling 57% to $7.6 million and W. dropped 49% to $5.3 million.
Did you check out Saw V or HSM 3 this weekend?
