How does one explain the strange, disturbing weekend success of The Devil Inside? How does one rationalize how a dumb, throwaway film like this can earn an estimated $34.5 million—$20 million more than what most prognosticators had predicted—to win the weekly box office tourney?
One might almost suspect that a legion of weekend moviegoers were possessed: possessed by an unaccountable urge to spend good money on a bad movie.
The Devil Inside isn’t even the first exorcism movie to borrow handheld, Paranormal Activity-style video works. (That distinction, I think, belongs to 2010’s The Last Exorcism.) But while the flick might not have impressed me or other critics (its rottentomato.com “freshness” rating is at 7%) or even audiences (“I want my money back!” someone said in the free advance screening I attended), it did shock the entertainment industry. The Devil Inside made good on its estimated $1 million budget, which makes me think we’ll see a sequel soon.
But Devil wasn’t the only film to perform well. Last week’s champ Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol also beat most experts’ estimates by taking in another $20.5 million for second place. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows slid to third with $14.1 million. Both films have made a boatload of cash in the month since their release—Mission has earned $170.2 million, Sherlock $157.4 million—to either close out 2011 or ring in 2012 (depending on how you look at it) in moneyed style.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo leapfrogged Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked to ink a fourth-place spot with $11.3 million. But those striped, well-dressed rodents earned another $9.5 million, with their total take now north of $100 mil.
Will Devil manage to hold sway over the moviegoing public for another week? Likely not. It is, after all, facing a trio of new releases, including a 3-D re-release of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Kinda weird to think of Devil battling the Beast, isn’t it?
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