The biggest President’s weekend on record as Friday the 13th posts the second best president’s weekend debut with a four-day total of $45.210 million.
The weekend generated a whopping $190 million in three-days and an estimated $223 million in four-days. This obliterates the previous record set in 2007 when Ghost Rider led the box-office to a Friday through Monday total of $186.5 million.
With this notion of the recession helping the box office, I guess this is just another example of that. People want to go to the movies and just have fun and escape. As scary as your mortgage banker is, Jason’s scarier.
While the Valentine’s date crowd loved them some Jason and the kids of Camp Crystal Lake, they also wanted something a little more traditional. Last week’s champ He’s Just Not That Into You got bumped to second place but earned another $23.3 million over four days and crossed the $55 million mark.
In third, Taken continued to show its strength as it drops a miniscule 6 percent in its third weekend of release and nears the $80 million mark on its way to a guaranteed $100 plus at the box-office.
Newcomer Confessions of a Shopaholic opened in the fourth spot with a respectable $17.3 million over four days considering the very crowded and highly competitive landscape with female audiences drawn both to Friday the 13th and He’s Just Not That Into You. In fifth was Coraline with $19.1, a tiny drop of 9 percent and a total gross thus far of $39.3 million.
Finally, Paul Blart makes more news as the film becomes only the second film ever released in January to earn over $100 million. Another great weekend as the recession-fueled marketplace continues its winning ways. The debut political thriller The International opened in eight place overall with $10 million.
FOUR-DAY STUDIO ESTIMATES
1. NEW! Friday the 13th (Warner Bros.) – $45.2M; 3105 theaters; $14,560 PTA
2. He’s Just Not That Into You (Warner Bros.) – $23.3M; 3175 theaters; $7,359 PTA; -29%; $58.8M cume
3. Taken (Fox) – $22.2M; 3109 theaters; $7,141 PTA; -6%; $80.8 cume
4. NEW! Confessions of a Shopaholic (Disney) – $17.3M; 2507 theaters; $6,902 PTA
5. Coraline (Focus) – $19.1M; 2320 theaters; $8,236 PTA; -9%; $39.3M cume
6. Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Sony/Columbia) – $13.8M; 2965 theaters; $4,671 PTA; +7%; $112.6M cume
7. The Pink Panther 2 (Sony/MGM) – $10.8M; 3245 theaters; $3,328 PTA; -22%; $24.1M cume
8. NEW! The International (Sony/Columbia) – $10.7M; 2364 theaters; $4,526 PTA
9. Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) – $8.7M; 1634 theaters; $5,340 PTA; $88.1M cume
10. Push (Summit Ent.) – $7.9M; 2313 theaters; $3,429 PTA; -31%; $20.3M cume
