The evergreen horror upstart Saw is now part of the exclusive billion dollar franchise club, following the release of Spiral.
When the first Saw movie released in 2004, directed by James Wan, it was a puzzle box really quite different from the sequels that followed. Those sequels, along with the Hostel movies, were saddled with the dubious honour of birthing the era of so-called ‘torture porn’ horror. Not many observers at that point would have estimated that the scrappy horror series would go on to spawn sequel after sequel, eventually finding its way into the billion dollar franchise club, a group occupied by major franchise mainstays such as 007 and Star Wars.
Yet that’s exactly what’s happened.
The latest film to release in the series, Spiral: From the Book of Saw released this past week and despite making less than $10m globally, that has reportedly been enough to cross the line into rarified territory for the Saw series. Lionsgate has distributed the Saw films since that first movie and President of Theatrical Distribution, David Spitz had this to say: “We congratulate our friends at Twisted Pictures and all of the filmmakers and stars who have been a part of the Saw legacy. Over the years, our partners have been innovative, creative, and open to new ideas as they have nurtured a micro-budget film into a billion-dollar-plus-grossing cultural phenomenon.”
The film’s producers aren’t finished there either. Saw 10 is reportedly in the works and Spiral has to finish its run too, which will add some more to the series total. You can check out our review of Spiral: From the Book of Saw here.
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