'Final Destination' for 3D horror movie: #1

By Sarah Sluis

The 3D format proved to be a big winner for The Final Destination, which earned $28.3 million thanks to the 50% of its locations that released the movie in the pop-out dimension. The release mirrors the success of January horror release My Bloody Valentine 3D, which earned $24.1 million over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

In third place, Halloween II lured in audiences to the tune of $17.4 million, a solid performance that nevertheless convinced the Weinstein Co. that the next movie in the franchise would be filmed in 3D to take advantage of the higher ticket prices and novel scares.

In its second week, Inglourious Basterds dropped 47% to $20 million, a strong showing that brought its cumulative gross to $73.7 million.

The big winner among specialty releases was The September Issue, which grossed $40,000 per theatre. The fashion documentary received a tremendous amount of publicity for a six-theatre run, so I expect the distributors to expand the release pronto--even to audiences outside of New York City, many of whom surely subscribe to Vogue, have heard of Anna Wintour, or know her as the inspiration for The Devil Wears Prada.

Focus Features gave Taking Woodstock a wider release of 1,393 theatres, hoping to attract crowds of followers, but the box office results fell below expectations (the reverse of the Woodstock concert itself). The based-on-a-true-story film brought in $3.7 million and a modest $2,600 per location, a per-theatre gross that still managed to exceed many of the other top ten films.

Among returning movies, Julie & Julia had the most holding power, dropping just 15% in its fourth week to earn $7.4 million and bring its cumulative gross to $70.9 million. The results are below Meryl Streep's past two summer films, Mamma Mia! and The Devil Wears Prada, but have spiked Julia Child cookbook sales to bestseller status and renewed interest in the famed chef. District 9 also put in a strong performance, bringing in another $10.7 million. Now that the Peter Jackson production has earned $90 million in three weeks, the rumored sequel, District 10, may just come to fruition.

This Friday, the comedy Extract from Mike Judge (cult hit Office Space) will release along with All About Steve, a stalker romance starring Sandra Bullock with a really bad haircut. Rounding out the Labor Day offerings will be sci-fi thriller Gamer, which stars Gerard Butler.