‘The Final Destination’ Scares Up Big Money – Box Office Results: August 28th-30th

The Final Destination, which basically only added the word "the" as to not copy its original movie's title, came in first this weekend with $28.3 million. It became the highest-grossing opening for a Final Destination movie, surpassing 2006's Final Destination 3's sum of $19.2 million by $9.1 million. Bad reviews from critics didn't seem to hurt this horror flick at all!

In a Friday showdown between previous top rank holder Inglourious Basterds and debuting Halloween II, the Michael Myers remake dominated with $7.6 million over Basterds' $5.9 million. However Saturday Quentin Tarantino's WWII spoof passed H2 by $2.4 million, raking in $8 million. So who took the crown of second place for the overall weekend? Inglourious Basterds did, with an estimated $20 million! Writer-director Rob Zombie's Halloween II stayed in third with $17.4 million. Shockingly, this was less than Zombie's 2007 slasher remake Halloween! That managed $26.4 million and it landed in the #1 spot. Looks like there won't be a Halloween III redo after all.

Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp's District 9 fell 41.3% to fourth place with an estimated $10.7 million. Its total is up to $90.8 million in three weeks. My guess is that it will easily pass the century mark by next weekend. Rounding out the top five is G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra with $8 million. The movie based on Hasbro action figures now has a total gross of $132.4 million in its fourth week.

Other movies that opened this weekend-

• Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock debuted with a disappointing $3.7 million total. Looks like my prediction was true: the Woodstock craze is over and opening a docudrama about the music festival this late would result in a negative box office finish.
  
• R.J. Cutler's documentary The September Issue about Vogue magazine editor-in-chief Anna Wintour made $240,000 in six theaters.
  
• Drama Big Fan starring Patton Oswalt grossed an estimated $26,000 in two theaters.
  
• Dark comedy Mystery Team opened with $7,900 in only one theater.
  

Here is the estimated box office results according to studio estimates Sunday-

1. The Final Destination…$28.3 million
   
2. Inglourious Basterds…$20 million
   
3. Halloween II…$17.4 million
   
4. District 9…$10.7 million
   
5. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra…$8 million
   
6. Julie & Julia…$7.4 million
   
7. The Time Traveler's Wife…$6.7 million
   
8. Shorts…$4.9
   
9. Taking Woodstock…$3.7 million
   
10. G-Force…$2.8 million