Jigsaw helps Hollywood’s box-office puzzle

LOS ANGELES — Hollywood may be suffering through a spiritless patch but Halloween films can still lend a needed jolt, as Lionsgate’s new Jigsaw horror film and a clutch of other scary films showed by boosting an otherwise flimsy weekend box office.

Jigsaw, the eighth chapter in Lionsgate’s Saw horror franchise, took in an estimated $16.3 million over the three-day weekend, according to industry Web site Exhibitor Relations. It beat out the same studio’s Boo 2! A

Madea Halloween, with $10 million. But after that, no film in the top 10 made as much as $6 million, with audiences distracted by baseball’s World Series and the hugely popular Netflix series Stranger Things. Even

Jigsaw fell some $4 million below expectations in its opening weekend,

Variety.com reported. With ticket sales in October some 5% below the same month last year, Hollywood is eagerly awaiting next week’s domestic premiere of Marvel and Disney’s Thor: Ragnarok. It took in an impressive $108 million in its international opening.

Jigsaw, the first Saw sequel in seven years, has police investigating a string of horrific murders committed in the style of the supposedly long-dead killer Jigsaw. Made for just $10 million, the film is already in the black. Boo 2! strikes a somewhat lighter tone. The comedy horror sequel has Tyler Perry and his gang heading to a haunted campground, where — no surprise — monsters lurk.

Geostorm took third place, earning $5.7 million. The sci-fi disaster thriller follows Gerard Butler who is tasked with saving the world from climate controlling satellites run amok.

Happy Death Day, another comedy horror flick, took in $5.1 million. The film follows college student who repeatedly relives the day she was murdered until she discovers who killed her. In fifth place was sci-fi reboot

Blade Runner: 2049, taking $4 million. The film features Ryan Gosling as a Los Angeles Police Department “blade runner” charged with killing bioengineered androids who are becoming too much like humans. Rounding out the top 10 were: Thank You for Your Service ($3.7 million); Only the Brave ($3.5 million); The

Foreigner ($3.2 million); Suburbicon ($2.8 million); It ($2.5 million)