(Update: Friday 12:30 PM, PT) The $1.7 million "Saw 3D" racked up off its midnight showing on Thursday shows that Jigsaw still has some life in him.
Putting the horror franchise's chief villain in three dimensions gave Lionsgate it's highest grossing midnight show ever — better than "Kick-Ass" and "My Bloody Valentine."
Even with holdover horror flick "Paranormal Activity" cutting into its market share, "Saw 3D" is on track to gross $22 million over the weekend in 2,808 locations and claim the top spot.
Still, it's a good, not great debut for the film. Last weekend, "Paranormal" brought in $6.3 million for its midnight showing, a record breaking gross for an R-rated film. 
Moreover, the projected opening weekend numbers represent a substantial improvement from the $14.1 million"Saw VI" brought in last year, but are lower than the $30 milion opening "Saw V" made in 2008
Earlier:
If the "Saw" franchise's vengeful villain Jigsaw really existed, "Paranormal Activity" creator Oren Peli might very well find himself in one of those gawdawful contraptions.
Certainly, Lionsgate, producer/distributor of the gruesome seven-film "Saw" franchise, watched as installment 6 went down in flames the week before Halloween last year — while Peli's micro-budgeted viral hit began its buzz-laden $193.4 million global run.
This weekend, both Lionsgate and Paramount are back with follow-ups, the latter having opened "Paranormal Activity 2" to $40.7 million last weekend — the biggest debut ever for a horror movie.
For their part, Lionsgate officials are hoping that the seventh — and what they're calling "final" — "Saw" installment, in 3D yet, will give it the added push it needs to compete with "Paranormal."
Lionsgate has booked 2,808 locations in the U.S. and Canada, with more than 2,100 of those theaters showing the film in 3D on more than 2,700 screens. The film will actually make its debut on Thursday night, with around 2,000 theaters offering sneak previews.
With Halloween weekend typically slow at the domestic box office, Lionsgate is the only studio releasing a movie wide this weekend.
Producing the film in 3D doubled negative cost to around $20 million, but it's expected that Lionsgate will recoup that in first-weekend box-office receipts.
Lionsgate executive VP of distribution noted that the original 2004 "Saw" also launched on a Halloween weekend, kicking off an impressive $18.3 million opening on a tiny $1.2 production spend.
"We've had success on this exact date with the franchise before," he told TheWrap.
While the second "Paranormal" will provide plenty of competition for younger moviegoers seeking R-rated thrills and chills, it doesn't throw off the same scary, unpredictable dynamic that Peli's homemade $15,000 original did last year.
The first "Paranormal Activity" steadily grew from playing a dozen theaters in mid-September to topping out at $21.1 million at 1,945 locations on the weekend of Oct. 23-25, which happened to be the opening weekend for "Saw VI."
As Spitz simply states, "It was a buzz saw," cutting the typical $30 million-plus opening that the "Saw" franchise had annually experienced from 2005-08 to just $14.1 million.
This year, with the second "Paranormal" following a typical open-wide release strategy, the typical 50 percent second-week drop-off is anticipated.
Meanwhile, among limited openings, Music Box Films debuted on Wednesday Swedish movie "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" in 123 outlets.
Starring Noomi Rapace, "Hornet's Nest" is the third film adaptation of the Stieg Larsson bestselling book series that also spawned "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Girl Who Played With Fire."
