"Friday the 13th" made its way to the top of the holiday box office, earning a record $42 million on its opening weekend. The movie was released by Warner Bros. and it is a remake of the 1980 horror flick that updates the grisly story of killer Jason Voorhees and his rampage among youths at a secluded summer camp. Jason, a hockey-masked zombie, is actually a drowned summer camper who takes revenge on the next generation of teen counselors.
The story presents Clay Miller played by Jared Padalecki, who goes to Camp Crystal Lake hoping to find his missing sister there. Considering the fact that the place is not quite welcoming, the audience is given some hints in the opening sequence about what had happened to the girl and her friends. Apparently they were all slaughtered by Jason, embodied by Derek Mears, a man who seems to be in great shape and whose face would have probably expressed determination if it were not covered by a hockey mask stained with his victims’ blood.
Marcus Nispel, the man who directed the movie is also the creator of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Nispel made sure his movie also contained explicit horror, not only the unbearable tension that might have just made it stronger. The movie is lacked of funny lines or smart comments, all in all remaining what it essentially is: another version of the classic.
The characters are annoying and seem to line up to be slaughtered for apparently no good reason. The killing seems to be happening for the sake of killing.
“Friday the 13th” managed to overcome the 2004 hit movie “The Grudge,” which earned $39 million during its debut weekend.
Ironically, the film made its opening on a Friday the 13th pulling in $19.4 million, considering the fact that the making of the movie cost producers $19 million.
“Friday” managed to set on the second place the previous weekend's top earner, "He's Just Not That Into You," a Warner-New Line romance which held up strongly with $19.6 million over the Valentine weekend.
Another movie which also fell one place and ended up third in ticket sales with $19.3 million was the kidnap thriller starring “Taken” Liam Neeson.
A new entry in the top 10 was "Confessions of a Shopaholic," a comedy starring Isla Fisher which landed straight on number four with sales of $15.4 million. The movie tells the story of a magazine retail writer who has to deal with her compulsive buying habits that have turned into a real problem for her.
Another new movie that is worth mentioning is “The International,” a thriller with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts which earned $10 million and finished on the seventh place. In this movie Owen plays the part of an Interpol agent who joins forces with a district attorney embodied by Watts in order to uncover a bank's global misdeeds.
Apparently this top 10’s three-day overall total of $190 million managed to give Hollywood the best President’s Day weekend ever. The results are a lot higher than those obtained during the same weekend a year ago, which means $157.1 million.
Paul Dergarabedian, the president of Media By Numbers stated that at the moment Hollywood seems to be unstoppable.
Considering the fact that in 2009 ticket prices were higher, it seems that movie attendance is running 20 percent higher than last year.
