Friday the 13th Leads Record President’s Day Weekend

Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on February 15, 2009

Well, not only was Friday the 13th a hit, it was a big hit. You might even say it slashed the competition (pardon the pun). It’s $42 million smackeroos for Jason Voorhees and the gang, as of Sunday. What’s more, this whole weekend is going to set a President’s Day holiday record.

I know — we’re supposed to be in a recession, a big recession no less, and yet the box office keeps on rolling. The total gross looks to be around $190 million for the movies playing this holiday weekend, topping the $157 million that was set in 2007. As for Friday the 13th, this is the biggest weekend opening for that franchise EVER, in its HISTORY. Its $19 million haul on Friday was also the best opening day for an R-rated horror-slasher film ever! Keep in mind, this is a franchise that has made a lot of money over the years in sequel after sequel after sequel. So what is the name of the sequel going to be for this one? Friday the 13th, Part II?!

Second and third place went to He’s Just Not That Into You and Taken, and fourth place went to the dismal Confessions of a Shopaholic, which rang up only $15.4 million. Wow, for a movie as ill-timed as this one, that seems like a lot of money. I thought it would have done worse. It probably deserved a lot worse, like $8 or $9 million.

Anyway, suffice it to say nobody can understand it. Here’s Friday the 13th, which made $19.3 million on Friday the 13th (surprise, surprise), but which also dominated with $14 million on Saturday, which was Valentine’s Day. That’s right — a gory slasher movie won Valentine’s Day!! Plus you have He’s Just Not That Into You, a movie about non-romance, placing second. And to top it off a movie about a shopaholic rings up $15 million for the weekend — in a raging recession. People are just confounded by these numbers. It’s mindboggling.

Like I say, audiences seem oblivious to the tanking economy. No wonder the Obama administration won’t give Hollywood a bailout — they don’t need it!

As for The International, it didn’t do well at all at $10 million. That, my friends, is what we call a (cough, cough) flop. And The Pink Panther 2 continues to lurch at $9 million, which is a recovery of sorts considering some of the really bad numbers posted in mid-week for this flick. But that movie, too, is still a flop.

I have to respond here to these Pink Panther defenders who insist on arguing that The Pink Panther 2 wasn’t really such a big flop. Face it, folks. When you’re an established franchise expecting to contend for first place with He’s Just Not That Into You, and you roll out on 3,000 screens in your opening weekend, and you finish in fourth place and do $11.6 million dollars, which is less business than The Love Guru did its opening weekend and similar to the crummy numbers Grindhouse put up — I am sorry, but your movie is a flop. Period. Incidentally, The Pink Panther 2 dropped to seventh place on Monday and then dropped to eighth place for the rest of the week. This flick is doing terrible business for a wide release in 3,000 theaters.

“But The Pink Panther 2 made more money than Fanboys!” you are probably saying. Well, let’s look at Fanboys for a moment and … Jesus Christ, I take it all back. Fanboys made only $59,700 this weekend!!! Yikes, that’s terrible!

I know it’s only on 41 screens, and it’s in its second week out, but for a limited release these are pretty crummy numbers. Anyway, I know it will be hard for Fanboys fans to accept the fact that their favorite movie is tanking, but hey, it happens. Heck, I loved Grindhouse and Snakes on a Plane, and they were flops, too — big ones. In fact, a lot of my favorite movies just can’t get an audience. It happens — a lot.

Here’s a look at how the movies finished up the 3-day weekend as of Sunday:

1 Friday the 13th (2009) $42,245,000
2 He’s Just Not That Into You $19,610,000
3 Taken $19,250,000
4 Confessions of a Shopaholic $15,406,000
5 Coraline $15,323,000
6 Paul Blart: Mall Cop $11,700,000
7 The International $10,000,000
8 The Pink Panther 2 $9,000,000
9 Slumdog Millionaire $7,150,000
10 Push $6,931,000

I should note that Under the Sea rolled out in 3-D this weekend on 49 screens. It took in $650,000. Also Two Lovers took in $90,000 on seven screens. The biggest per-screen average? Gomorrah, at $14,740.

And finally — Paul Blart: Mall Cop’s grand total is now up to $110,515,000. (!) (?)

That is all for now. Back with more box-office previewing later this week at the Reject Report.