One week ago The Grudge out did expectation and a sequel was inked just as quickly, now with the early success of the small budget horror, Saw, we get news that Lions Gate Films is already set for a Saw 2.
Saw cut a wide swath into the nationwide box-office over the lucrative Halloween weekend, grossing $18.3 million on 2315 screens, taking the #3 position. Scaring off the competition by coming in #1 on Halloween day, the film’s three day gross exceeded industry expectations. On the heels of positive response to the bloody tale of a twisted psychopath’s murderous cat and mouse games, plans for the sequel releasing Halloween 2005 was jointly announced by Peter Block, Lions Gate Films President of Acquisitions, Television and Co-Productions and Twisted Pictures Mark Burg, Oren Koules and Gregg Hoffman.
“We were confident going into this weekend as the only new horror release that we would hit our target audience of genre fans, but this has exceeded all our expectations,” said Tom Ortenberg, President of Lions Gate Films Releasing. “With Saw, James Wan and Leigh Whannell have tapped into filmgoers’ most base fears and have created something that people immediately feel they need to talk about with others, and see again to catch clues they may have missed the first time,” he added.
“We are thrilled about the strong opening weekend of Saw. Lions Gate’s marketing and distribution team has done a phenomenal job and we’re very excited to be partnering with them again on Saw 2,” say producers Burg, Koules and Hoffman.
There was no word on what exactly the sequel will entale, but if you have seen the original, you know the possibilities are wide open for more guts and gore.
