Box Office - 'Final Destination' Kills Michael Myers

Among the scenarios we discussed Thursday in our Fearless Forecast for this weekend was Halloween II limping into the frame well behind The Final Destination, that even though the films would probably eat each other's business to a degree, if there was an poor performer it would be the next Michael Myers movie. And that's how it's playing out. On Friday, The Final Destination, spurred a little bit by the increased ticket prices where it's being shown in 3-D, made a clear case for the new number one movie, earning just over $10 million. That's not huge, but when you consider that none of the films in the franchise had even earned $20 million in a weekend and that there's direct and indirect competition all around it, this is quite a start. As for Halloween, it opened in second place, but by the time the actual numbers are revealed on Monday, it may slip to third place behind Inglourious Basterds. On its own, a $7.6 million opening day isn't terrible for Halloween II, although it's well off the performance of Rob Zombie's first film, about 30% on opening day alone. And if history is any guide, the numbers will slide continuously and precipitously over the next couple days. That's why the door is open for Inglourious Basterds, which, if it maintains a consistent number around $6 million Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, should hit $18 - $19 million. That ought to be good enough for the silver medal. Last week's number two finisher, District 9, made a predictable drop down to fourth, but with $3 million on Friday, that's still fairly competitive in a weekend like this, dominated by two new movies that aim young and a carryover number one that does the same. By the time the weekend is through, this will almost be a $100 million flick. That's kind of like a 1,000 yard rusher in the NFL now (gee, 63 whole yards a game?!), but under the circumstances, it is pretty impressive. I have a hunch that if not for Inglourious Basterds, District 9 would already be over the century mark. We'll have a full recap tomorrow on, what is for the last stanza in traditionally a bad month for movies, a pretty compelling weekend.