Saw IV Box Office: Perverse Halloween Horror Movie Fails to Surpass Predecessor

Saw IV movie with Scott Patterson: This year’s slab of Halloween torture porn has failed to surpass its predecessor at the domestic box office.

Saw IV box office: Perverse Halloween slasher fails to beat predecessor

Oct. 26–28 weekend box office: With Halloween just around the corner, Lionsgate’s Darren Lynn Bousman-directed Saw IV was the no. 1 movie on the North American (U.S. and Canada only) chart, collecting $31.8 million from 3,183 theaters according to final studio figures found at boxofficemojo.com.

For comparison’s sake: This fourth installment in the gruesomely perverse Saw movie franchise failed to beat the $33 million debut of its Halloween 2006 predecessor, Saw III, while barely managing to edge out (not factoring in inflation) Saw II’s $31.7 million opening near Halloween 2005. These two earlier titles were also directed by Bousman.

The silver lining: Saw IV was budgeted at a reported $10 million. Now, bear in mind that this figure doesn’t include marketing and distribution expenses, which were likely higher than usual for low-budget productions of this sort.

In the Saw IV cast: Tobin Bell (as John Kramer, a.k.a. Jigsaw), Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, Lyriq Bent, Athena Karkanis, Justin Louis, Donnie Wahlberg, Shawnee Smith, and Angus Macfadyen (who deserved better things).

Give audiences what they want…

Update: Give global audiences what they want and you’ll have a hit in your hands. Saw IV ultimately collected $63.3 million domestically and $76.1 million internationally. Worldwide total: $139.4 million.

Its top international markets were the United Kingdom/Ireland ($12.9 million), Germany ($7.4 million), Spain ($6.8 million), France ($5.1 million), Italy ($4.3 million), and Australia ($4.2 million).

Steve Carell & Juliette Binoche romantic comedy Dan in Real Life has marginally acceptable debut

Trailing Saw IV this past weekend, Peter Hedges’ romantic comedy Dan in Real Life debuted with a (barely) acceptable $11.8 million from 1,921 locations. Steve Carell stars as a widowed newspaper advice columnist who falls for his brother’s girlfriend, played by Oscar winner Juliette Binoche (The English Patient, 1996).

Also in the Dan in Real Life cast: Dane Cook (as the brother), Alison Pill, John Mahoney, Amy Ryan, Matthew Morrison, and two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest (Hannah and Her Sisters, 1986; Bullets Over Broadway, 1994). Budget: $25 million.

Update: Steve Carell’s Dan in Real Life ultimately collected $47.6 million domestically and an even more modest $20.8 million internationally. Worldwide total: A so-so $68.5 million – not enough for it to recover its overall cost at the box office.

Its top international markets were the United Kingdom/Ireland ($3.1 million), Spain ($2.7 million), France (Juliette Binoche’s native land, with $2.5 million), and Australia ($1.7 million).

Critically derided The Game Plan remains among Top Five after five weekends

For the record, rounding out the Top Five movies on this past weekend’s domestic box office chart were:

• David Slade’s vampire thriller 30 Days of Night, starring Josh Hartnett and Melissa George, with $6.9 million (down a hefty 57 percent on its second weekend).
• Andy Fickman’s critically lambasted sports family comedy The Game Plan, starring Dwayne Johnson, Madison Pettis, and Kyra Sedgwick, with $6.1 million (down a modest 25 percent on its fifth weekend).
• Tyler Perry’s moralizing comedy-drama Why Did I Get Married?, starring Tyler Perry and Janet Jackson, with $5.6 million (down a whopping 54 percent on its third weekend).

“Saw IV Box Office” endnotes

Unless otherwise noted, “Saw IV Box Office: Perverse Halloween Horror Movie Fails to Surpass Predecessor” box office information via Box Office Mojo. Budget info – which should be taken with a grain of salt – via BOM and/or other sources (e.g., the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Screen Daily, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Deadline.com, etc.).

Comments about Saw IV, Dan in Real Life, and other titles being hits/profitable or flops/money-losers at the box office (see paragraph below) are based on the available data about their production budget, additional marketing and distribution expenses (as a general rule of thumb, around 50 percent of the production cost), and worldwide gross (as a general rule of thumb when it comes to the Hollywood studios, around 50–55 percent of the domestic gross and 40 percent of the international gross goes to the distributing/producing companies).

Bear in mind that data regarding rebates, domestic/international sales/pre-sales, and other credits and/or contractual details that help to alleviate/split production costs and apportion revenues are oftentimes unavailable, and that reported international grosses may be incomplete (i.e., not every territory is fully – or even partially – accounted for).

Also bear in mind that ancillary revenues (domestic/global television rights, home video sales, streaming, merchandising, etc.) can represent anywhere between 40–70 percent of a movie’s total take. However, these revenues and their apportionment are only infrequently made public.

Scott Patterson Saw IV movie image: Lionsgate.

“Saw IV Box Office: Perverse Halloween Horror Movie Fails to Surpass Predecessor” last updated in October 2022.