A Scene from Evil Dead

Inset: Shiloh Fernandez as David in Evil Dead Photos: IC

 

Evil Dead, the blood-drenched remake of the 1981 horror classic, The Evil Dead, scared up $26 million in its first weekend to win the box-office race, slashing past another familiar story, the 3D re-release of Steven Spielberg's 1993 dinosaur blockbuster, Jurassic Park.

The supernatural story of five twenty-something friends who battle demons in a remote cabin, Evil Dead far surpassed industry projections of about $20 million for the film following a strong $1.8 million in midnight showings on Thursday.

Last weekend's box-office leader, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, fought its way into a virtual tie with animated Stone Age comedy The Croods, now in its third week in theaters, with each taking in $21.1 million, according to estimates from hollywood.com's box-office division.

The 3D Jurassic Park re-release was fourth with $18.2 million in ticket sales, and Olympus Has Fallen rounded out the top five with sales of slightly more than $10 million, squeaking past Tyler Perry's Temptation, which came in sixth at $10 million.

"It's just a great opening, the film delivered in a big way," said Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures' president of worldwide distribution, noting that the $26 million haul was far above its hopes for something in the high teens or low 20s for the film that had a budget of about $17 million.

Reuters