The Final Destination registered the 298th largest opening of all time last weekend, while Halloween II is much lower on the chart, at #652. The two films largely avoided the worst case scenario, whereby they affected each other's performances severely, given their essentially similar nature. Clearly, each film must have had an impact on the other, but Halloween II also suffered from the negative reception of its predecessor.
The Final Destination, on the other had, outperformed estimates by a bit, and continued the trend started by its predecessors, where each film's opening increased over the other:
BOM reports that fully 70% of the film's opening figure, or $19m, came from 1,652 sites that showed the film in 3D. This strongly suggests that the newest installment in the franchise benefitted from the 3D gimmick, rather than from faithfulness to the franchise itself. The opening number, either way, is very impressive. It marks the 18th largest opening for an August release, and is also the 28th biggest opening of 2009 (Halloween II ranks at #49):
Note that no less than 7 of the top 50 opening weekends this year were released in August, underscoring just how strong a month this has been.
Labor Day Weekend should help both films, but only a bit. I expect The Final Destination to have by far the lowest multiplier in the franchise, but its large opening ensures that it will be the biggest of the four films. I expect a finish at around $65m at this point.
