The ‘Saw’ Franchise, Ranked By Critics’ Scores And Box Office Opening Weekends

Topline

The tenth installment in the Saw horror franchise fell behind many of its predecessors in its opening weekend at the domestic box office, but it’s the best-reviewed Saw film by a large margin.

Key Facts

Ranked By Critics’ Scores

1. Saw X (2023): 85% Rotten Tomatoes, 60% Metacritic

2. Saw (2004): 50% Rotten Tomatoes, 46% Metacritic

3. Saw III (2006): 30% Rotten Tomatoes, 48% Metacritic

4. (tie) Saw II (2005): 37% Rotten Tomatoes, 40% Metacritic

4. (tie) Spiral (2021): 37% Rotten Tomatoes, 40% Metacritic

6. Jigsaw (2017): 32% Rotten Tomatoes, 39% Metacritic

7. Saw VI (2009): 39% Rotten Tomatoes, 30% Metacritic

8. Saw IV (2007): 18% Rotten Tomatoes, 36% Metacritic

9. (tie) Saw V (2008): 13% Rotten Tomatoes, 20% Metacritic

9. (tie) Saw 3D (2010): 9% Rotten Tomatoes, 24% Metacritic

Ranked By Domestic Opening Weekends

1. Saw III (2006): $33,610,391
2. Saw IV (2007): $31,756,764
3. Saw II (2005): $31,725,652
4. Saw V (2009): $30,053,954
5. Saw 3D (2010): $22,530,123
6. Saw (2004): $18,276,468
7. Saw X (2023): $18,000,000
8. Jigsaw (2017): $16,640,452
9. Saw VI (2009): $14,118,444
10. Spiral (2021): $8,750,034

Chief Critics

The New York Times film critic Beatrice Loayza considered Saw X “the most well-groomed Saw movie to date,” praising the coherent story and a departure from the “frenetic editing techniques that made the older movies look like the blood and guts equivalent of white noise.” Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman similarly praised Saw X as an improvement over the previous films in the franchise, stating it “comes closer than most of the Saw films to being an actual movie” because of its stronger emphasis on plot instead of just gore. Detroit News critic Adam Graham called Saw X the best film since the original and criticized the long-running series for “twisting itself in indecipherable knots” with convoluted storylines. Because Saw X takes place after the events of Saw, the newest installment “wipes that silliness out,” Graham wrote.

Big Number

$164,874,275. That’s how much Saw III grossed at the global box office following its 2006 release, making it the highest-grossing film in the franchise. Saw II is the second-highest grossing film in the series—it grossed $147,748,505 worldwide after its 2005 opening.

Tangent

Saw X’s opening weekend lags behind several other horror films at the domestic box office this year. Scream VI posted the largest opening weekend for a horror film this year in March, grossing $44,447,270 in its domestic opening and $168,961,389 for its global total. M3GAN kicked off this year’s horror box office in January with a $30,429,860 opening weekend, and it’s grossed $179,968,873 worldwide. Though M3GAN is an original film and not tied to a franchise, like Scream VI and Saw X, the film went viral thanks to a social media campaign that thrust the titular doll to gay icon status. Insidious: The Red Door and Evil Dead Rise also surpassed Saw X’s opening weekend, grossing $33,013,036 and $24,504,315 in their respective openings. Though the box office has notoriously struggled since the Covid-19 pandemic, the horror genre has consistently been a strong performer at the theaters.

What To Watch For

Will there be an eleventh Saw film? Though a new film has not been confirmed, Saw producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules told Comicbook.com they have ideas for another installment but have not yet started to write. Saw 3D—which was also released under the title Saw: The Final Chapter—was initially intended to wrap up the series, but the franchise was rebooted with Jigsaw seven years later.

Key Background

The Rotten Tomatoes critics score, known as the Tomatometer, is the percentage of critics who have given the film a positive review. A movie with at least 60% positive reviews is given a fresh tomato, while those with a score of less than 60% are given a splat. Metacritic calculates a weighted average of critics’ reviews, assigning different weights to each critic and publication, depending on importance or quality. Scores are displayed in green, yellow or red—indicating favorable, mixed or unfavorable reviews—and films with a score of at least 81% are designated as “must-see.” Both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic track user ratings and allow users to write reviews, though these are displayed separately from critics’ scores.

Further Reading

‘Paw Patrol’ Sequel Leads Weekend Box Office—And Beats Prior Film—As ‘Saw X’ Takes Second Spot (Forbes)

How Saw X Fits Into the Saw Universe (Time)