Jason Voorhees slayed the competition this holiday weekend, as the latest Friday the 13th film grossed a killer $42 million.
To put that in perspective for a moment, Michael Bay and Marcus Nispel’s reboot of the never-ending franchise banked more dough in its first weekend out than the total gross of virtually every installment that came before. For example, total domestic gross for the very first Friday the 13th flick, released in 1980? $40 million. How about 1985′s Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning? $22 million. And the last outing before the remake, Jason X, scared up a measly $13. (Two caveats: these numbers aren’t accounting for inflation. I’m also not counting the cross-over flick Freddy Vs. Jason, which ended its run with $83 million.) By the time the movie finishes its run, it will easily stand as the franchise’s box-office champ. Which means you can expect another Friday the 13th movie to arrive in theaters very soon, along with a Nightmare on Elm Street re-launch.
Jason may have been the weekend’s top dog, but the romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You held up well in its second week of release, easily fending off competition from Confessions of a Shopaholic. The latter film came in fourth place with $15 million, while He’s Just… finished second with $19.6 million. Stuck in the middle of this chick flick sandwich was Liam Neeson’s alpha male pop from the action movie Taken, still going strong in its third week. The animated adventure Coraline rounded out the top five, adding $15 million to last weekend’s solid debut for a $36 million total.
Clive Owen and Naomi Watts may be terrific actors, but they could stop the juggernaut that is Paul Blart: Mall Cop. The Kevin James comedy beat out the Owen/Watts thriller The International for sixth place, with the latter earning an underwhelming $10 million. Audiences said “Non!” to seeing more of Steve Martin’s bumbling Inspector Clouseau. The Pink Panther 2 dropped to eighth place, which means this franchise might mercifully be retired. A week before Oscar night, Slumdog Millioniare is the only Best Picture nominee that still cracked the top ten. Finishing in ninth place with a $7 million gross (and $87 million overall), it looks like Danny Boyle’s triumph of the underdog tale will just fall short of the $100 million goal, but never count out the little movie that could. Just barely making the cut in tenth place is the action movie Push, which beat out Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino by a slim $181,000 margin.
The full Top Ten is below courtesy of the-numbers.com. Next weekend is a quiet one as Hollywood takes a break from big releases to close the book on 2008 with the annual Oscar telecast. But Tyler Perry, one of the busiest men in show biz, isn’t taking the weekend off. The writer/director/actor’s latest film Madea Goes to Jail arrives on screens next week and Perry’s signature pistol-packing grandma Madea may just be the only person who can cut Jason down to size.
Top Ten for February 13-15
1. Friday the 13th: $42.2
2. He’s Just Not That Into You: $19.6/$55
3. Taken: $19.3/$77.9
4. Confessions of a Shopaholic: $15.4
5. Coraline: $15.3/$35.6
6. Paul Blart: Mall Cop: $11.7/$110.5
7. The International: $10
8. The Pink Panther 2: $9/$22.3
9. Slumdog Millionaire: $7.2/$86.5
10. Push: $6.9/$19.3
