Critics opinions had no impact on the commercial appeal of the low-budget chiller “Ouija”, which scared up the most ticket sales this weekend. According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Ouija” has received some of the worst reviews of the year.
“Ouija” benefited from audiences looking to get into the Halloween spirit by topping charts with $20 million from 2,858 locations.
The brain child of Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes and “Paranormal Activity” producer Jason Blum, “Ouija” cost less than $5 million to produce, setting Universal, the studio behind the seance horror film, up for some enviable profit margins.
Jason Blook: King of Low-Budget Horror
It marks the seventh of Jason Blum’s micro-budgeted horror films to open in first place. “He just does it over and over and over again,” said Nikki Rocco, Universal’s distribution chief.
Young Demographic
“Ouija’s” PG-13 rating helped the film broaden its appeal to younger, female audiences. The picture’s opening weekend crowd was 75% under the age of 25 and 61% female. “Marketing knew exactly what audience they were going after and they nailed it,” said Rocco.
