Friday the 13th Scores $41 Million Over Opening Weekend

First of all, the Platinum Dunes remake has made $41 million over its opening weekend, already out earning every traditional Friday The 13th movie in three short days (it is still second in total gross to the $87 million grossing Freddy Vs. Jason). Hell, it's $19.3 million Friday number out grossed the domestic totals of Friday the 13th parts 7-10 (and the first day was within spitting distance of the $19.4 million gross of part VI... I'm surprised New Line and Paramount didn't pad it accordingly). Whomever those 'experts' were that predicted that this would do $20 million for the weekend... well, they should be jammed into a tree with a machete.

This opening is right in line with the $25 million+ openings for Marcus Nispel's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Rob Zombie's Halloween, adjusted for inflation, the perfect release date (why didn't Halloween opening on Halloween weekend, again?), and the general acceptability to mass audiences. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (accurately) had a nasty, gooey, painful looking trailer that promised blood, grime, and prolonged suffering. Halloween had a trailer that promised swift and horrifying death and sheer brutality (again, quite accurate). The Friday the 13th series has always been the 'kinder, gentler' slasher franchise. Yes there was blood and gore, but the deaths were quick, painless, and often more funny than scary (does anyone know anyone who has ever actually been frightened by a Jason film?). At a glance, the film looked far more appealing to the casual horror fan (the sort that enjoys the PG-13 outputs) than the previous remakes (it also helped that this wasn't a horror masterpiece being remade, but rather a piece of crap that happened to spawn a popular series).

Of course, the big trump card was New Line and Paramount's ability to actually open the film on Friday the 13th, the day before Valentine's Day no less. I can't imagine how angry Lionsgate must be that they had to open My Bloody Valentine 3D in the middle of January. Like The Omen: 666, this was a remake that seemed to have been created to capitalize on a release date. And like the Omen redo, this film is pretty much finished now that said release date has come and gone. The Marcus Nispel Jason remake had a pathetic 2.108 multiplier, which is just below the 2.13x for Sex And The City and just above the 1.935x multiplier for Twilight. Of course, those two didn't have a holiday weekend (tomorrow is Presidents Day) to bounce off of. I'd be shocked if Friday the 13th gets to $100 million, even with around $46 million likely in the bag by tomorrow evening.

Scott Mendelson

Comments

[L1]

Friday the 13th is a series that I think every “born and raised” American has learned to appreciate. i mean common, There are now over ten movies called Friday the 13th. I am what you would call a new generation movie person and I appreciate going to the theater and watching a well filmed and directed piece of art. Friday the 13th just didn’t cut it, at times I couldn’t event tell what the heck was going on. The filming was done to dark like there wasn’t enough light on set, and the acting sucked. Stuff like that I just can’t appreciate it amazed me to hear that they made 41 mill on the first weekend, the movie was out, that’s pretty good numbers for a poor film. I second that opinion made about the release date, it must have been the reason that this film was successful, and I don’t think that the film will be doing any good in the next few weeks. Also, I am still upset that I even spent the money to see the film, that ten dollars could have went towards a nice dinner or a new pair of socks, instead of a horrible horror film. The first 3 movies were good and scary. I feel like if you have something good you can get a positive profit for so long, I have to give it up the people behind the marketing made this series last for many years.

[AGarcia]

I would remake "Phantasm".... just kidding, "Scanners"... LOL. kid, I KID!

[cyguy]

F13 parts 1 thru 3 were good, esp 1 and 2. They were scary. They built up the suspense. They were filmed very well. Indivdual scenes were well done( when will film-makers realize that its individual scenes that make or break a film, esp horror films?). This remake only had one really good sequence/scene and it was the water skiing one. The sleeping bag kill was also very "effective" and memorable.

Also, since they actually billed this movie as a retelling of the first 4 they should have given more screen time to Jason's mom and possibly did more of a recreation of the first film for the beginnng of this film then went from there. They should have def. given more time to the Alice/Mrs. Voorhees chase/beheading sequence as THIS is what makes Jason start killing. It made no sense to give that scene a very brief redux.

And the ending to this one was just so flat and rushed.

Let me add the it was filmed too dark. Half the time I couldn't tell what was going on and the camera was too jerky. Sigh, I guess no one will ever get it right.