Box Office: 'Final Destination' too much for 'Halloween 2'
'Basterds' falls 60%, 'Taking Woodstock' not groovy
Two actors (does it really even matter who they are?) try to cheat death once again in this weekend's box office champ, "The Final Destination 3-D."
To say these are the doldrums of the summer box office season may be a colossal understatement.
In a rarity for August, two horror films have opened in the top spots. According to Box Office Mojo, Friday's winner is "The Final Destination 3-D" with $10.9 million and an estimated take of $23-26 million. If the estimates hold, it will beat the opening of 2006's "The Final Destination 3" which made $19 million its opening weekend. The fact the current installment was in 3-D no doubt pumped up the returns, but it's still a shocking result considering this sequel was originally intended just for DVD.
Coming in second with $7 million and an "at best" estimate for a $17 million weekend is Rob Zombie's "Halloween 2." The Weinstein Company may have made a mistake going up against "Final Destination 3-D" as this sequel to the 2007 reboot of the Michael Myers franchise won't come close to its predecessor's $26 million opening and surprising $58 million gross.
The Weinstein Company can take heart, however, because in third place is last week's champ "Inglourious Basterds" with another $5.9 million. Down 60% (although that should even out to mid-50's by the time the weekend is out), Quentin Tarantino's latest has already made close to $60 million total and should be closer to $70 million by the time the weekend is over. The fact the magic $100 million mark is not out of reach is surprising for a picture many thought dead after it's disappointing response at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Fourth place with $3 million was "District 9" as its cume hit $83 million. The critically acclaimed Sci-Fi thriller should make $9 million for the weekend and hit $100 million sometime in September.
"Julie & Julia" came in fifth place with another $2.1 million as the Nora Ephron romantic comedy really starts to slow down as it enters it's fourth week of release. With an estimated $7 million and a projected $70 million total by the end of the weekend, the Meryl Streep/Amy Adams flick should end with around $85-90 million when all is said and done.
Other openers including Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock" which took in only $1.2 million from 1,393 theaters. Even with the low theater count that has to be a tad disappointing for Focus Features who no doubt found selling a 70s themed comedy more difficult than they expected.
Look for final weekend estimates tomorrow on HitFix.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupS. Bradley O'Blenis
August 29, 2009 at 5:22PM EST Reply to CommentWhat exactly is it that makes this weekend such a 'colossal' case of the doldrums? It looks to me like the overall take is going to be pretty good for late August, so I guess it's just the fact that whoever wrote this article clearly doesn't care for horror movies. But what makes a summer good overall is that you have a lot of different kinds of movies - action blockbusters, comedies, family animated movies, dramas (admittedly not as many of this genre in the summer - the studios save most of their top dramas for November and December), thrillers, and yes, horror movies, all out there and succeeding. (And we even got an anime - Ponyo -in pretty wide release and doing well! About time!) It's been a good, pretty diverse summer this way, and personally I can't wait to see Halloween 2 and The Final Destination. And, in my opinion, it's unnecesarily disrespectul to say "it doesn't even matter who the actors are".