‘Freddy’ reigns terror on box office

The slasher horror flick “Freddy vs. Jason” scared off the competition for young males this weekend, coming in at No. 1 with an estimated $36.4 million.

Appealing to a vastly different audience, Disney’s western “Open Range” also opened with decent numbers, grossing an estimated $14.1 million, corralling the No. 3 spot and posting the second-best per-theater average among the top 10 films.

“S.W.A.T.,” which took last week’s No. 1 spot, came in No. 2 this week, with $18.6 million.

Although a few theaters were still dark Friday, this week’s East Coast blackout had little discernable effect on box office. The top 10 films this weekend grossed an estimated $126.6 million, a 33% jump from the comparable weekend last year, according to box office tracking firm Nielsen EDI Inc.

“Open Range” represented a labor of love for star-director Kevin Costner, who invested an estimated $13 million of his own money to cover the movie’s $23-million budget. The film posted a respectable per-theater average of $6,805 in a moderately wide 2,075 locations.

The film, which also stars Robert Duvall and Annette Bening, received fairly good reviews and likely benefited from its release late in the summer at a time when competition has cooled down.

Meanwhile, if “Freddy vs. Jason,” which averaged a scary $12,085 per theater, holds up well, it could mean there will be yet another sequel for the franchises, which have been around since the early 1980s. Horror films typically drop in the neighborhood of 50% in their second weekends, but they have the twin business virtues of low budgets and long video shelf lives.

This series has an interesting history. Producer Sean Cunningham and director Wes Craven worked together on creepy “The Last House on the Left,” which came out in 1971. Cunningham directed the first film in the bloody saga “Friday the 13th,” which starred Kevin Bacon. Craven launched his own slasher series in 1984, writing and directing the cult classic “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” which, oddly enough, featured Johnny Depp, now the star of one of the summer’s biggest hits, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”

“Freddy vs. Jason” uses characters from both films -- Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees -- and was directed by Ronny Yu, a Hong Kong director perhaps best known in this country for directing “Bride of Chucky” in 1998.

Russell Schwartz, president of domestic marketing New Line, said “Freddy vs. Jason” had been in the works at New Line for seven years, so there was perhaps “a lot of anticipation” for the film among fans of the genre.

The film was seen mainly by males, and 65% of the audience was 25 and under.

As for whether there are plans for yet another sequel, Schwartz said, “We’ll see what happens.”

In other news, MGM’s girl-oriented “Uptown Girls” debuted at an estimated $11.2 million to land in fifth place. The low-budget comedy starring Brittany Murphy and Dakota Fanning was seen mainly by teenage girls. Warner Bros.’ skater action-comedy “Grind” opened with a limp $2.6 million in 2,253 theaters.

In addition to “Freddy vs. Jason,” New Line Cinema opened in limited release “American Splendor. “ The Sundance Film Festival favorite posted strong returns, grossing $156,000 at six theaters for a healthy per-venue average of $26,000.

The low-budget drama, about the real-life comic book author and perennial grump Harvey Pekar, benefited from good reviews and solid word of mouth. It is the first feature film for co-directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini.

Among other limited releases, “Step Into Liquid,” Artisan Entertainment’s surfing documentary directed by Dana Brown, grossed an estimated $190,000 in its second weekend, averaging a solid $11,875 per theater. Miramax’s re-release of “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” grossed $10,930 in single bookings in L.A. and New York. Samuel Goldwyn’s Portuguese American drama “Passionada” grossed an estimated $80,000 in 76 theaters.