As expected, “Paranormal Activity 4” earned the top spot at the domestic box office this weekend, but it did so without grossing anywhere near as much as the previous couple installments. #4’s $30.2m opening was down 42.5 percent from #3’s $52.6m and down 25.8 percent from #2’s $40.7m. Perhaps people heeded the advice of our Timothy Semenza, who wrote that the film “strongly suggests that the franchise is out of new ideas and should come to an end.” Still, with a production budget of just $5m, this “underperforming” installment will hardly make Paramount call it quits.
“Paranormal Activity 4” was able to beat fellow opener “Alex Cross,” starring Tyler Perry in a crossover role as a James Patterson detective, by a sizable margin, however. “Alex Cross” pulled in a meager $11.8m, supporting my view that it should have been a TV property instead. It was bested by three holdovers: “Argo,” Ben Affleck’s buzzed-about crowd-pleaser; “Hotel Transylvania,” Adam Sandler’s runaway animated success; and “Taken 2,” the ‘Liam Neeson is still a badass’-sequel.
Check out the full top 10 chart below:
| No. | Title | Weekend | Per Theater Average | Total |
| 1 | “Paranormal Activity 4” | $30.2M | $8,851 | $30.2M |
| 2 | “Argo” | $16.6M | $5,120 | $43.2M |
| 3 | “Hotel Transylvania” | $13.5M | $4,479 | $119.0M |
| 4 | “Taken 2” | $13.4M | $3,841 | $106.0M |
| 5 | “Alex Cross” | $11.8M | $4,628 | $11.8M |
| 6 | “Sinister” | $9.0M | $3,552 | $32.0M |
| 7 | “Here Comes the Boom” | $8.5M | $2,820 | $23.2M |
| 8 | “Pitch Perfect” | $7.0M | $2,635 | $45.8M |
| 9 | “Frankenweenie” | $4.4M | $1,877 | $28.3M |
| 10 | “Looper” | $4.2M | $1,889 | $57.8M |
Source: Box Office Mojo