Oculus movie opens to $12 million in its first weekend in theaters

The latest film WWE Studios had its hand in, Oculus, was released in theaters nationwide this weekend to what has to be considered a success if only because it will make money. According to Deadline.com, the horror movie is set to pull in around $12 million in its initial run.

The other opener, Oculus did actually okay for Relativity, which picked up the film for $2.5M in Toronto (on a total budget of $5M). The horror flick, despite its C CinemaScore (and all three genre films' in wide release this year have disappointed both critics and audiences) grossed an estimated $11.8M to $12M.

With a budget of just $5 million, all involved are surely happy with early returns.

The same can't be said for some of those who bought tickets. June M. Williams, who does brackets for our tournaments here at Cageside (vote on the latest here), plunked down the coin to check it out and came away extremely disappointed.

Her brief but scathing review:

This movie was originally a 30 minute short -- I have my doubts that even edited down to that extent it could be worth sitting through. This was by far the worst "scary" movie I have ever seen. Usually I hate when an animal is harmed during a film, even just for dramatic effect, but this movie actually had me disappointed when the dog got away. I wish I could have been as lucky. I even tried to ignore the ridiculous plot line and simply appreciate the special effects. That endeavor failed just as badly as the folks who made this movie. Did they even screen this? The entire budget must have gone into marketing and the cost of hiring the Jennifer Lawrence wannabe actress playing the protagonist. I was supposed to feel sympathetic for her, but I couldn't have cared less what happened to her and instead felt sympathetic for my fellow movie goers who paid to be entertained and were left wanting. Perhaps the worst part is that this had potential to be so bad it was good but it even fell short of that marker. Final rating: Crap.

Ouch.

Anyone else who has seen the flick have any comments on it?