HUGE 180 from what you thought about it when the first trailer came out, good to hear, I can see where you were coming from with the first trailer.

April 7th- Ice Age 2
March 31st- Ice Age 2
March 24th- Inside Man
March 17th- V For Vendetta
March 10th- Failure to Launch
Febuary 24th- Madeas Family Reunion
Febuary 17th- Eight Below
Febuary 10th- Pink Panther
Febuary 3rd- When A Stranger Calls
January 27th- Big Mommas House 2
January 20th- Underworld Evolution


January 6th, January 13th and March 3rd have been the only 3 weekends without a $20M movie on top.
Amityville Horror had success on basically the same weekend last year with $24M opening weekend.
I think SCARY MOVIE 4 and THE WILD will top $20M this coming weekend. Scary Movie 4 will collapse over 60% in it's 2nd weekend, (part 3 fell -58.4%). And i rekon SILENT HILL has a bit of a chance to top it's opening weekend. So i'm pretty certain that SILENT HILL will top $20M. Joining the string of horror hits from the first 3 months of 2006....

Underworld 2- $62,318,875
Final Destination 3- $53,951,647
When A Stranger Calls- $47,860,214
Hostel- $47,326,473
The Hills Have Eyes- $40,324,340

American Haunting, The Covenant & See No Evil look to be the only horror-bombs this summer. The Return could go bomb-tastic, or solid hit. We haven't seen enough. The summer horrors...Omen, Pulse, Fragile, The Reaping, Snakes On A Plane...should all cross $30M totals. And the 'October big-ones' Texas Chainsaw, The Grudge & Saw III could all pass $50M totals.

I say, by the end of 2006, we have 15 horror/thrillers over $40M total.

Thing is, the first trailer was actually rather poorly edited if you ask me. It showed a lot of brief moments that by themselves didn't show much potential. However, when you actually see these moments pieced together, the result is FAR better then one would think. Heh, funny thing is it's almost always the other way around. But yeah, before there was apparent style, but now it really seems like there's a lot more going on then just a gorgeous production design.

Saw 3 is going to challenge 80 million and of course, Snakes on a Plane is going to rule all.

See No Evil and American Haunting are going to flop. They look too generic and most will wait-for-DVD.

The Omen should do decently as it has a great release date and is a remake of a well-known film.

Pulse will disappoint as it looks behind the times as the whole Japanese horror thing isn't in vogue as much as it was a few years ago.

The Reaping could do decently as it has a good premise (A town is suffering from the Biblical Plagues) and a decent cast with Hilary Swank starring.

The Descent is going to tank as many will think it's a rip-off of The Cave which itself tanked. I wouldn't actually be that surprised if Lionsgate just sends it direct-to-video.

Who knows yet if The Covenant will do well. I need to see some form of promotion first.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning should do decently as the remake was successful and origin stories are usually pretty interesting.

The Grudge 2 should also do well although not as well as the first ala The Ring 2.

Fragile: A Ghost Story might do okay as the premise is mildly intriguing but the lack of a star may hurt the thriller.

Skinwalkers could do decent if it can capture some of the style that made the 'Underworld' films popular.

The battle between Glen Morgan's (the 'Final Destination' series, 'Willard') Black Christmas and Greg McLean's ('Wolf Creek') Rogue on Christmas Day should be interesting. One really should move but if they don't I give the advantage to the former because of its Holiday theme.

Silent Hill is estimated for 2,400+ theaters next weekend. I kinda expected more, but $20 million opening weekend is still within reach.

Me thinks it'll end up with at least 2550.

Films based on video games typically don't do very well, with some exceptions (i.e. Resident Evil). From what I hear, this may be a good adaptation, but Silent Hill isn't nearly as popular as Mortal Kombat or Doom, and it also lacks any star power. I'm generously predicting a $18 million opening weekend, and it's only that high because it's right on the heels of Scary Movie 4. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been surprised to see a mild $5000 PTA and an opening around $15m.

Final theater count is 2,926, a solid number. I'd normally expect higher from Sony, but to be fair it is TriStar, and the market is thick with competition for theaters. If the film is as good as some of the early reviews I've read, I could also see it breaking out and actually having excellent WOM. I think the film has some adult appeal that could allow it to have a run of 24/68, although it could definitely move up or down.

Does the R-rating and lack of star power concern you at all? With this movie, it could have a $10 million or $25 million weekend and neither would really surprise me.

For a horror film the star power is through the roof, you got SEAN BEAN!!! Seriously though, what successful horror film this year had star power? Silent Hill has more then any, even though they arent bringing anyone into seats.

Ahorrormoviedoesn'treallyneedstarpower.Sureithelps,TheGrudgemostlikelywould'vemade$5 orsomillionlessopeningweekendwithoutSMG,butthehorrorelementsarewhatsellahorrormovie.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is not a box office draw. She doesn't have a $5m fanbase.

I'msuretherewasalargenumberofBuffyfansthatsawitthatwould'vehaveif shehadn'tbeeninit.$5millionintermsofdollarsisn'tevenamillionpeople.

Im not sure if i agree or not about the SMG draw factor.

But, certainly for me, she made The Grudge much more appealing, and more than a Ring rip off.

20/50

Typical horror movie legs.

20/48.

I still think it will break out with 30m this weekend. I think it has too much potential to have an opening like so many other horrors.

Final Predictions:

Opening weekend - $21.2 million

Total gross - $55.5 million

I would have gone higher, but the it doesnt have many screens and showtimes.

..........

AICN run some reviews:

http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=23088

http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=23087

http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=23086

http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=23084

In short, very bizare, haunting, gory imagery (yay!), but on the other hand weak script and dialog (oh, well). To hell with the dialog, i want to see that bloody, fucked up stuff!

On a quality note, every person I trust says it's shit, which worries me.

Yeah, but shouldn't we hope that horror can have interesting/disturbing scares and quality acting and dialog?

Umm... yes.

Zingaling pretty much nailed it and probably the total gross as well. Good job.

I wonder if this will spawn a franchise.

It would worry me too, if I found out that every person I trust had such poor taste...