Return of the Box Office Report!

If it seems like there's been a lot of horror in your diet as of late, you're not just spending too much time on "Twilight" fan boards. Since the weekend of August 20th we've had five straight weeks of new horror releases, a streak that will be broken this coming weekend. I'm counting "Machete," so depending on how you classify, your milage may vary.

While only one of those releases -- "Resident Evil: Extinction" -- took home the weekend box office title, the returns have by and large been positive. Each of these recent films has earned back it's budget, though "RE: Extinction" needed overseas uplift to make the cut. "Devil," the most recent horror release of 2010, has had mostly middling success in the early going. Out of 17 total 2010 horror releases, it ranks 12th in opening weekend haul -- pulling in $12.2 million, while the average for 2010 has been just south of $20 million. In terms of reception, the film sits only a slot higher at number 11 for the year based on Metacritic scores (it has a 46). The good news for this film, and for potential future Night Chronicle editions, is that "Devil" was produced on a budget of $10 million, making it the second cheapest film of the year to date. Mr. Shyamalan and his friends can comfortably sit back and count their monies from here on out.

There's so much box data to catch up in 2010, let's just have some fun with numbers:

1. The four most expensive pictures of the year cost a combined $370 million to make, but have grossed only $329 million. The other 13 horror films this year cost $269 million, and have grossed $393 million.

2. The four films to receive a Metacritic score over 60 -- "Machete" (60), "Shutter Island" (63), "The Last Exorcism" (63) and "Splice" (66) -- include this year's current highest grossing horror film, "Shutter Island" at $128 million, and the second lowest grossing film, "Splice" at $17 million.

3. With a domestic gross of $61 million, and a world wide gross of $139 million, "The Wolfman" wasn't the only picture this year to close the books in the red. The real goat of 2010 so far has been "Repo Men," whose current worldwide gross of $18 million only accounts for 56% of its $32 million production budget.

It's been a fun year, and we've got a lot to look forward to as we move into the home stretch of 2010. Consider: the final "Saw," Wes Craven's directorial return, and a Rene Zellweger vehicle! Okay, only two of those three should excite you, but don't let me tell you which two it should be.

For all those box office watchers at home, if you'd like to play along, feel free to reference the BGH 2010 Box Office spreadsheet.