I guess folks want a break from the horrors of the economy and are looking to our patron saint of slashers for help. The new – and totally fun looking – “Friday the Thirteenth” beat the hell out of pre-release estimates over the weekend and pulled in over $42 million. Not too shabby, and it doesn’t even count any extra cash it may pull in today, what with it being a holiday Monday and all.
With $42.2 million, the biggest opening gross thus far in 2009, “Friday the 13th” easily won the record-breaking Presidents Day weekend box office race, beating out Valentine’s Day favorites “Confessions of a Shopaholic” and “He’s Just Not That Into You,” as well as solid holdovers “Taken” and “Coraline.” (All totals listed here are according to early three-day estimates from Media by Numbers; rough figures for the four-day holiday weekend will be out tomorrow.)
That $42.2 million sum is the top first-weekend figure for any movie in the nearly 30-year-old “Friday the 13th” series — including the 2003 mashup, Freddy vs. Jason, which premiered with $36.4 million. In fact, the original “Friday the 13th” movie, from 1980, grossed just $39.7 million during its entire run, not adjusted for inflation.
In addition, this marks the best bow ever for a horror remake, besting “The Grudge’s” $39.1 million debut gross. And it arrives despite a weak B- CinemaScore review from an audience that skewed male.
