Imagine, Activity went wider over the weekend, but was still in less than 1,000 theaters. And it beat the previous weekend's number-one feature, Couples Retreat, distributed by General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Universal, which came in fourth this time around.

Not only that, but the per-theater average was again astonishing. As I noted last week, Activity was a killer when it came to this metric. The current weekend per-theater average as of this writing is reported as being over $26,000.

I would really love to know the marketing spend on Activity. As I stated previously, I do wonder if this proves that shareholder value at media companies can be enhanced by studios concentrating on extremely low-budget pictures. Maybe not ones that cost $20,000, but perhaps projects that fall into a budget range between $1 million and $5 million. Concept, not celebrity, should be the driving force, since the latter inflates the investment obligation.

Can Activity continue its horrifically successful performance at the box office? Is it about to run out of steam? It's possible Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF) will torture it to death next weekend. The next entry in the Jigsaw chronicles, Saw VI, will haunt silver screens across the nation beginning October 23. That picture should come out on top (I'm not interested in buying Lions Gate ahead of the release, however, as I'm not sure it will do much for the stock). And while I think Activity will summon decent business, it will probably experience a significant drop. It doesn't matter, though. It's done a respectable job of capturing cash. Viacom should consider taking it out of theaters once Halloween is over and immediately porting it over to the DVD and video-on-demand markets. That could maximize profit potential. Media companies must experiment with such quick tactics one of these days . . . why not today?

Disclosure: I own GE; positions can change without notice.