Texas Chainsaw 3D and Django Win Top spot in Horror movies for early January

Like a post-New Year’s Eve hangover nightmare, the slasher film Texas Chainsaw 3D screamed into movie theaters and mauled its Oscar-wannabe competition on the first weekend of 2013. The sixth movie spawned by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper’s 1974 grindhouse classic, cut its way to a bloody-bountiful $23 million at the North American box office, according to preliminary studio estimates. But it wasn’t the only ultraviolent R-rated melodrama to lure audiences: Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino’s pre-Civil War Southern Western, earned a sturdy $20.1 million to finish second.

Early Jan. has become prime time for low-budget horror films. The junkie-vampire drama Daybreakers ushered in 2010 with $15.1 million its opening weekend; and last year The Devil Inside, an exorcism exploitation effort made for a paltry $1 million, scared up a Satan-tastic $33.7 million. TC3D, which cost $20 million to produce, didn’t reach Devil territory, even with jacked-up prices for the stereo glasses. It also couldn’t match the three-day $28.1 million grossed by the 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot. But the new movie did much better than expected; few industry handicappers predicted it would land at the top of the charts.

Read more: http://entertainment.time.com/2013/01/06/slash-and-burn-texas-chainsaw-3d-and-django-win-a-gory-weekend/#ixzz2HIe5nBMR