Per the Daily Variety:
Warner Bros. and New Line’s “The Final Destination” in 3-D was the destination of choice at the weekend box office, easily beating the Weinstein Co.’s “Halloween II” in grossing $28.3 million from 3,121 runs on the strength of the upcharge for a 3-D ticket.
And among the holdovers:
“Basterds” fell 47% to an estimated $20 million from 3,165 runs for a domestic cume of $73.8 million. Overseas, the film grossed an estimated $19.4 million from 2,891 runs in 31 territories for a foreign total of $59.1 million. Worldwide tally is a boffo $132.9 million.
$133M. Those are eye-popping numbers for a 153-minute, R-rated period piece.
And District 9 keeps chugging along with an estimated $10M this weekend and a projected worldwide B.O. total of $97M.
As for me? I accompanied Luke to see Shorts, the newest kids offering from writer-director-producer-cinematographer-editor-composer Robert Rodriguez. Plus four of his kids — Rebel, Racer, Rocket, and baby Bianca — played roles in the movie.
Luke, who is 9 years old, enjoyed the movie and its laden with CGI “be careful what you wish for” set pieces. From my standpoint, it’s interesting for two reasons. First, Rodriguez used a non-linear approach to the narrative, jumping through 4 ‘shorts’ (hence the movie’s title) told out of sequence. Second, the adult cast includes William H. Macy, James Spader, Jon Cryer, and Leslie Mann. Some surprising names there, especially Macy and Spader.
However Shorts has accumulated an underwhelming $12M in 8 days of release.
On a weekend like this I think you look for the longest movie out there and pray to God the theater has great air conditioning.
Hey Scott, there's an idea for a thread – off kgmadman's point re: aircon…"What does your perfect cinema look like?" Massive recliner chairs, of course (they are getting better though). 360 surround screen. Seats that move in an action movie. A cinema that's five steps away from my house. My personal house seats available at all times. Seats that eject moviegoers who…text, laugh in the not funny bits, crumple icecream wrappers in the quiet bits…
I'm dreaming.
Very surprised to see how well this sequel did in its first weekend. With no notable names attached and the "high concept" idea behind the franchise now arguably becoming… well, overplayed… I wonder how much of an impact the fairly new strategy of using 3D as a marketing tool has had on the surprising ticket sales for The Final Destination.
If anyone remembers, the 3D marketing gimmick worked for My Bloody Valentine as well.
Do you think with these unexpected Box Office results for these two films, that more action/thrillers will adopt this 3D marketing technique to up their chances at pulling in the thrill-seeking teen niche?
Would many of the viewers that paid for tickets have actually done so if there was no 3D aspect to those films? I personally don't believe so. I think they may have been looking at considerably lower BO numbers.