Box Office Report: `The Final Destination` scares up top spot with $28.3 million
by Adam B. VaryFor many, the creative relevance of 3-D cinema remains very much an open question. But when the history of Hollywood’s 21st century embrace of 3-D is written, it very well may point to this weekend as the moment when the format definitively established its commercial power at the box office. Despite a moviegoing weekend dominated with R-rated violent thriller-type films ostensibly shooting for the same audience, The Final Destination scared up by far the most box office receipts, banking $28.3 million for an easy No. 1 berth, according to early estimates from Hollywood.com Box Office. That’s almost $10 million better than the opening frame for the last film in the creatively-dispatching-model-perfect-unknown-actors franchise (which, for those keeping track, was Final Destination 3). There’s really only one reason why: Although just over half its 3,121 theaters were screening the flick in 3-D, fully 70 percent of its box office take was from 3-D theaters, which typically charge an extra few bucks per ticket for the privilege of watching the film with those comfy stereoscopic glasses. Rest assured, despite its title (and its abysmal “C” Cinemascore grade), this is by no means the final Final Destination movie.
Read the whole story here: http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/08/ … -top-spot/
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