Saw X Is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, Only Movie in the Series

Saw X has only been in theaters a few days but it’s already proving to be a major box office draw. The film has already set one franchise record by being the longest movie in the Saw series, but it’s also set another, perhaps more important, record, the Rotten Tomatoes score. As of this writing, Saw X is the highest rated movie in the entire franchise, earning a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 85% approval rating (with over 80 total reviews). This is the first time that any Saw movie has been given a Fresh rating on the review aggregator, let alone a Certified Fresh label. For context on the year, Saw X‘s 85% is higher than Scream VI, The Nun II, Evil Dead Rise, Knock at the Cabin, and No One Will Save You.

Prior to Saw X, the highest rated movie in the franchise was the original film from James Wan back in 2004, which has just a 50% approval rating. The highest rated sequel of the Saw movie series before Saw X was 2009’s Saw VI, which has a 39% rating. That sequel has a major thing in common with Saw X, both movies were actually directed by franchise veteran Kevin Greutert. Here’s how the rest of the Saw film franchise stacks up on Rotten Tomatoes:

• Saw (2004) – 50%
• Saw II – 37%
• Saw III – 30%
• Saw IV – 18%
• Saw V – 13%
• Saw VI – 39%
• Saw 3D – 9%
• Jigsaw – 32%
• Spiral: From the Book of Saw –  37%
  
• Saw X – 85%

When you look at this ark compared to other horror franchises, this trend pops up at times. For Halloween, only the 1978 original and the 2018 reboot have fresh scores; while the first Child’s Play has a 73% rating with no sequels until Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky in the 2010s earning a Fresh score.  A Nightmare on Elm Street has three fresh movies (the 1984 original, 1987’s NOES 3: Dream Warriors, and 1994’s Wes Craven’s New Nightmare). Scream is the exception that proves the rule, with 2000’s Scream 3 sitting alone as the ONLY movie in the series with a Rotten rating. 

Saw X marks the tenth movie in the horror franchise but the box office receipts have already proven that fans were hungry for more. Despite lackluster returns for 2017’s Jigsaw and 2021’s Spiral: From the Book of Saw, Saw X is already looking to bounce back in a big way. Early returns for Saw X reveal that it brought in over $8 million on Friday and is on its way toward a $20 million opening, which would give the series its biggest opening weekend in thirteen years. Despite that tremendous success, it’s looking like Saw X won’t be the #1 movie at the box office this weekend, with Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie on track for a $22.5 million opening and the #1 position. 

Of the ten Saw movies that have been released, six of them have opened #1 at the domestic box office, with Saw II, III, and IV all reaching this milestone three years in a row. Saw V failed to hit #1 in its first weekend, instead falling to #2 thanks to High School Musical 3: Senior Year, with Saw VI also unable to climb the mountain thanks to the franchise’s biggest competition, Paranormal Activity. Saw 3D, or as it was called at the time, Saw: The Final Chapter, just barely managed to beat out Paranormal Activity 2 for the #1 box office position (thanks in part to its 3D upcharge), while both Jigsaw and Spiral opened to #1 (the Chris Rock-starring film from 2021 also managed another major franchise first, sitting at #1 for two weekends in a row).