According to The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Gems' Boogeyman made a smart play at the boxoffice during Super Bowl weekend, taking in an estimated $19.5 million to easily capture first place. The opening for the PG-13-rated horror-fest from Ghost House Pictures and Mandate Pictures, marked the biggest debut ever for the famed football weekend, besting another Screen Gems title, last year's You Got Served, which opened at No. 1 with $16.1 million. In a Super Bowl counter-programming move, Universal's The Wedding Date from Gold Circle Films bowed in the second spot with an estimated $11 million from just 1,694 theaters. It was the lowest venue count among the top 10 films this weekend and a bit more than half of the 3,052 that Boogeyman occupied. Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney star in the PG-13-rated Wedding Date, which was directed by Clare Kilner.

While appealing to vastly different tastes, one thing both of this weekend's top two films had in common was that they both had low budgets and hence were fairly low-risk films that paid off handsomely. The reported cost for Wedding Date was in the $15 million area, and Boogeyman was even lower at about $7 million. Stephen T. Kay helmed Boogeyman, which stars Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel and Lucy Lawless.