Weekend Box Office: 'Friday the 13th' Ensures Continued Stream of Horror Remakes

New Line insists on "reimagining," but from reading the reviews I take it nobody's buying.

Anyway. Friday the 13th set a horror remake opening weekend record, grossing $40.7 million over the three days and $45.2 including President's Day Monday. That beats Marcus Nispel's Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake by more than $12 million. It's also roughly the second best President's Day weekend opening ever, behind only Ghost Rider and just about tied with 50 First Dates and Daredevil.

Confessions of a Shopaholic opened to a halfway decent $17.3 million, while The International more or less flopped with $10.7 million; the marketing for the latter really pushed the evil bank concept, complete with a shot of an ATM offering "murder" "corruption" and "extortion" as options instead of "withdrawal" "deposit" and "check balance." Maybe people thought it was a comedy.

It was another good weekend for holdovers, with Taken, Coraline and -- once again -- Paul Blart: Mall Cop all doing well. Taken's $81-million-and-counting is really remarkable. $120 million is assured at this point, with more possible. "Sleek, preposterous and breathlessly entertaining" appears to be a good formula. Meanwhile, maybe if I stop mentioning Paul Blart in these posts, it'll go away? Seems unlikely.

Leading up to the Oscars, Slumdog Millionare should be close to $100 million by the big night. The Reader also saw a late bump this weekend; a Kate Winslet win on Sunday can't hurt.

The full 4-day top 10 after the jump.



1 - Friday the 13th (New Line) - $45.21 ($14,560) - $45.21
2 - He's Just Not That Into You (New Line) - $23.37 ($7,359) - $58.83
3 - Taken (Fox) - $22.20 ($7,141) - $80.88
4 - Coraline (Focus) - $19.11 ($8,237) - $39.34
5 - Confessions of a Shopaholic (Buena Vista) - $17.30 ($6,902) - $17.30
6 - Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Sony) - $13.85 ($4,671) - $112.67
7 - The Pink Panther 2 (Sony) - $10.80 ($3,328) - $24.12
8 - The International (Sony) - $10.70 ($4,526) - $10.70
9 - Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) - $8.73 ($5,340) - $88.12
10 - Push (Summit) - $7.93 ($3,429) - $20.33

The rest at Box Office Mojo.

Next week: Quiet, with only the teen comedy Fired Up and the latest Tyler Perry offering, Madea Goes to Jail, making wide debuts. Perry's franchise entries tend to open around $20 million, and horror films with big first weekends tend to take big hits, so it could be a battle for the top slot.