Low budget film The Purge surprises at the box-office

I'll give you $3 million, what can you give me in return? That would have been the cry of the studios, Platinum Dunes and Blumhouse Productions, which have been quite effective in producing low-budget horror flicks in the past, to the team creating The Purge. But hardly anyone of them could have replied then that what they would create would be a horror flick which would generate revenues 12 times of its production budget in the first weekend itself! Yeah, you heard it right. On a production budget of a mere $3 million, the Ethan Hawke starrer The Purge raked in $36 million in the weekend gone by at the North America box-office. That has solidly put the film in the #1 spot, followed by Fast & Furious 6 which is in its third week, then Now You See Me (which has been another positive surprise, dropping only 34% in the second weekend) and the other new release The Internship.

Not many would have wondered much about The Purge before its release, but as low-budget horror flicks have had a way of surprising at the box-office, the exceptional results of this movie should thus not be surprising at all. Interestingly, the movie has really not gathered much positive reviews and does not even have the supernatural element; the broad story involves a world in 2022 when USA allows a 12-hour period each year wherein crimes are legalised, and it is then that Ethan Hawke is left with the task of protecting his family. Ethan Hawke is having a good time this year, with much critical acclaim already received for Before Midnight and now the commercial success of The Purge. He's got an action flick Getaway left for later in the year, let's see if he completes a hat-trick of success!   

  

In contrast, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in The Internship have failed to shine in the manner they did previously in The Wedding Crashers. Arriving fourth at the box-office on the opening weekend itself is as bad as it gets, and for now it seems that horror has scored a point over comedy. Fast & Furious 6 and Star Trek Into Darkness, both have crossed the $200 million milestone in North America, and Iron Man 3 is less than $6 million short of hitting the $400 million mark. So that is how it panned out for the last weekend, and now we are less than a week away... just a few days left... one can almost hear the swish as he flies by, the flutter of his cape... almost there!