By: Scott Johnson on January 5, 2013
Horror is back at the box office. In somewhat of a surprise, the horror movie Texas Chainsaw 3D easily won the Friday box office in the United States. Texas Chainsaw 3D took in a solid $10.2 million on its first day of release.
Many had expected either Django Unchained or The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to lead the box office this weekend, but neither film came even close to Texas Chainsaw 3D on Friday. Django Unchained finished second with $6.2 million, while The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey finished third with $5.2 million.
Texas Chainsaw 3D is the seventh film in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. The original 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre made $30.8 million total at the U.S. box office. A 2003 version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre sill holds the record for best opening day ever for the franchise with $10.6 million.
With such a good opening day, it’s likely that Texas Chainsaw 3D will win the weekend with an estimated $25 million or so. The strong performance of the film should be pleasing to distributor Lionsgate, which could be looking at a very good year since they also have The Hunger Games: Catching Fire set to be released later this year.
