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JASON Kills Competition
The slasher's re-launch already profitable. By
Jarrod Sarafin
February 15, 2009
DEREK MEARS stars as Jason in New Line Cinema’s and Paramount Pictures’ horror film “Friday the 13th,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
© New Line Cinema
The estimates are in and the winner is who we thought it would be, Valentine’s Day holiday or not. Jason Voorhees, via Friday the 13th, returned to the front of the pack hacking and slashing the box office competition. Warner Bros. and New Line have had a successful launch of the iconic horror villain with the film scoring up $42.2 million over its first three days in theaters across the nation. With Jason appearing in 3,105 theater prints, this comes to an average showing of $13,605 (also #1) with audiences.
Like Dimension Film’s recent Halloween re-launch, the studios WB & NL kept the budget very low. Director Marcus Nispel and the studio spent just $19 million on its production costs, with film scoring more in its first three days at the box office then all Jason’s previous solo efforts performed in their entire theatrical runs. Minus the Jason vs. Freddy film in 2003, the highest grossing solo Jason film was Friday the 13th, the original in 1980, which grabbed a domestic gross of $39.7 million. And since Freddy vs. Jason had a domestic gross of $82.6 million, this Friday the 13th re-launch has half that total in its first three days of theatrical release. The film is already major victory for Warner Bros., New Line, and their horror property.
Films #2 to #7 for this report all scored double digit numbers as well at the box office, with audiences choosing a little of everything.
Following in 2nd place is last weekend’s champion, the romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You from Warner Bros. and New Line. The two studios enjoyed the second spot as well with their returning couple comedy taking in another $19.6 million over its second theatrical weekend. Taking advantage of the couple-focused holiday, the film has scored a domestic gross of $55.0 million in its first ten days at the box office.
Overall, it’s been a great February for New Line and parent company Warner Bros. And with Watchmen hitting theaters in three weekends, Warner Bros. has a positive forecast on the future as well.
Taking the 3rd place spot is the revenge-thriller Taken, which returns for its third weekend with a tally of $19.2 million. This has the film just $400,000 shy of the 2nd place film and dropping only 6% from its second and third weekends of release. The Liam Neeson vehicle has grossed $77.9 million to date, which has it a virtual lock to hit the $100 mil domestic mark by its theatrical end. It already has that mark and more worldwide, with the film scoring another $69.0 million in foreign territories. This makes for a gross of $146.9 million across the globe.
Walt Disney debuted their comedy Confessions of a Shopaholic into 4th place this weekend with the film managing a respectable $15.4 mil in its first three days of release. Not a bad opening at all even if it couldn’t find a way to land in the top 3 spots for its debut.
Focus Features dropped down to 5th place with its returning animated feature Coraline. The film, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s work, grabbed another $15.3 million in its second weekend of theatrical release. Since the film is showing in only 2,320 theaters, this makes for a respectable average of $6,605 per showing with audiences across the nation. After ten days of release, the Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) film has grossed $35.5 million domestically.
Sony Pictures has the 6th, 7th, and 8th spots in this report. Their success story Paul Blart: Mall Cop has the 6th place mark with the film grabbing another $11.7 million in its fifth weekend of release. The comedy is already a very profitable venture for Sony since the film cost only $26 mil to produce and has $110.5 million in domestic gross sales.
Sony’s next film is the final debuting wide release of this weekend, their thriller The International. The Clive Owen-led vehicle managed only $10.0 million in its first three days of release. With the film costing $50 million to produce, we shall see whether it maintains steady numbers over the next few weekends to make up for a lackluster debut or if it drops out sight.
And their sequel, The Pink Panther 2, found itself dropping four spots to 8th place in its second weekend at the box office. The sequel comedy scored only $9.0 million in its returning weekend. The numbers are pretty good for a 8th place film but when it comes down to talking about this specific film, the first two weekends are not up to par with its 2006 predecessor. The original remake landed in 1st and 3rd place for its first two weekends, scoring up an impressive $42.3 million in ten days of release. This sequel has grabbed only $22.3 million in its first ten days.
Maintaining the longest steady box office legs of all the films this season is Fox Seachlight’s critical success The Slumdog Millionaire. The Boyle-directed film is once again in the top 10 this weekend, taking the 9th place spot with another $7.1 million in sales. Will it hit the $100 million domestic mark? It doesn’t really need to do so, with the film costing only $15 million to produce but it has a shot. Slumdog currently has a domestic tally of $86.5 million. If you include the $50.7 million from foreign markets, the success story has a worldwide gross of $137.2 million.
And Summit Entertaiment found themselves in the 10th place spot with their returning vehicle Push. The film debuted in 6th place last weekend with only $10.0 million and then dropped four spots to its current position by grabbing only another $6.9 million. Its obviously not performing as well as their Twilight franchise but it should be noted that like the vampire tale, the distributor kept the budget low. With a production cost of only $38 million, it doesn’t need much to get its money back before moving onward into DVD release.
| Rank | Movie | Weekend | Theaters | Average | Total | Budget |
| 1 | Friday the 13th | $42.2 mil | 3,105 | $13,605 | $42.2 mil | 19 |
| 2 | He’s Just Not That Into You | $19.6 mil | 3,175 | $6,176 | $55.0 mil | ----- |
| 3 | Taken | $19.2 mil | 3,109 | $6,192 | $77.9 mil | ----- |
| 4 | Confessions of a Shopaholic | $15.4 mil | 2,507 | $6,145 | $15.4 mil | ----- |
| 5 | Coraline | $15.3 mil | 2,320 | $6,605 | $35.5 mil | ----- |
| 6 | Paul Blart: Mall Cop | $11.7 mil | 2,965 | $3,946 | $110.5 mil | 26 |
| 7 | The International | $10.0 mil | 2,364 | $4,230 | $10.0 mil | 50 |
| 8 | The Pink Panther 2 | $9.0 mil | 3,245 | $2,773 | $22.3 mil | ----- |
| 9 | Slumdog Millionaire | $7.1 mil | 1,634 | $4,376 | $86.5 mil | 15 |
| 10 | Push | $6.9 mil | 2,313 | $2,997 | $19.3 mil | 38 |
There’s not much going on genre wise at the box office the next two weekends. Most studios chose to get out of the way not wanting to release a major genre film right before Warner Bros.’ Watchmen, which will hit theaters on March 6, 2009.
The exception is Fox choosing to release their action film Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li the weekend before on February 27, 2009. Rather than holding out for a better date, they’ve decided to just release it and hope for the best. And there’s not much hope for them with Walt Disney releasing their concert production Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, which will be the #1 film of that report. Like the Hanna Montana experience, the film is already booking sell outs across the nation well in advance to its launch.
Unless Tyler Perry returns to his successful roots, next weekend’s report will likely be centering on this weekend’s winners.
Friday February 20, 2009 Release:
Wide
Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (2,000+ theaters)
Fired Up (1,800 theaters)
Limited
Eleven Minutes
Delhi 6
Friday February 27, 2009 Release:
Wide
Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
Limited
Crossing Over
An American Affair
Assassination of a High School President
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Yo if any you kids can understand spanish, check this song out. Go to youtube and write "Vico C Viernes 13"
It's a Friday the 13th song old school rap. I know if you from PR you've heard it. Anyway, enjoy.
I still might catch the movie tommorow. Everything coming up sucks, I can't wait for Watchmen to finally get here.