Horror movie "Ouija" grossed $20 million on the box office this weekend, beating Keanu Reeves' "John Wick" for the top spot. Keanu Reeves' action movie garnered a little over $14 million, which was "better than expected" according to Sara Hamedy of LA Times.
The "Ouija" film was based on the titular board game manufactured and distributed by Hasbro. In the movie, a group of friends try contacting one of their own who was killed in an accident. The movie, which cost Universal Pictures around $5 million to produce, was expected to rake in at least $18 million in the U.S. and Canada.
"This was the perfect release date leading up to Halloween," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal. "We knew Halloween, on a Friday, would not be a great box office day."
Bryan Alexander of USA Today says Ouija "succeeded where other movies based on board games - such as 1985's Clue and 2012's bomb Battleship - have failed in the past."
"The Universal release also performed the task with a cast of relative unknowns and was produced for less than $5 million by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes and micro-budget horror king Jason Blum in conjunction with Hasbro," he added.
"Ouija had two things going for it. We're in full Halloween mode, so the timing was obviously perfect," says Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for box office tracker Rentrak. "On top of that was the brand name Ouija. There is a real horror mystique around that name. There was great marketing around that."
Travis Leamons, writer for Inside Pulse, says that Universal Pictures "could have had another dud on its hands with Ouija," referring to the studio's other game-based movie, "Battleship".
"The game that is pronounced "wee-gee," was originally intended to be an expensive McG-helmed horror-thriller. But then someone came to their senses... and decided to push it as low-budget with no stars. That's the state of horror nowadays," Leamons adds.