Despite death taking a fourteen-year holiday from the big screen as far as the Final Destination franchise went, the saga is alive and well. As we predicted earlier this week, Final Destination: Bloodlines, the sixth entry in the series – and the first in fourteen years – set a major franchise record, opening to a mighty $51 million. By comparison, the highest-grossing opening weekend of the franchise had previously been The Final Destination back in 2009, which made $27.4 million. Bloodlines’ opening weekend take is actually more than what Final Destination 2 and 5 made in their entire runs.
One thing is for sure – audiences are loving the franchise’s return. Typically, horror movies don’t fare well in the weekly CinemaScore polls done by the studios, with a grade in the C-range usually considered typical. Final Destination: Bloodlines managed to score a B+ rating, which is terrific and bodes well for word-of-mouth, meaning the film could end its run in the $100 million range. Even if not through, it will easily end its run as the highest-grossing film in the franchise to date, and will no doubt have WB/New Line Cinema rushing to get yet another instalment in the franchise out within a year or two (at max).
Meanwhile, the battle for second place was a nail-biter, with Marvel’s Thunderbolts winning – but only by a hair – with them making $16.5 million in their third weekend for a $155 million domestic total. It seems unlikely to crack the $200 million mark, leaving this as one of the lowest-grossing Marvel movies. A lot of its thunder was taken by the zeitgeist-grabbing Sinners, which got back its 70mm IMAX screens this weekend, and made $15.4 million towards a $240 million domestic total. Is $300 million achievable?
Indeed, Warner Bros was having a very good weekend, with them claiming three of the top four grossing movies at the box office, as A Minecraft Movie made $5.9 million for fourth place, with a $416 million domestic total. Amazon/MGM’s The Accountant 2 continued to show some staying power, making $4.5 million for fifth place, with the $58.7 million total not far off from what the studio’s The Beekeeper made in January 2024. Could The Accountant 3 still happen? Fingers crossed!
The Weeknd’s big screen debut, Hurry Up Tomorrow, posted an abysmal opening, with only $3.3 million this weekend on over 2000 screens. We slammed the movie pretty harshly in our review, and audiences seemed to feel the same way, with it earning a C-minus CinemaScore rating. A24 – after a rough start to the year. – finally seems to have a hit with the Tim Robinson/ Paul Rudd comedy, Friendship, which made $1.4 million on only 60 screens, meaning it had a terrific $23k per screen average.
Sadly, IFC/Shudder’s Clown in a Cornfield lost over 60% of its audience in week two for a $1.3 million gross and $6.3 million total. However, it’s still one of the highest-grossing IFC/Shudder releases to date, and it should make a mint on streaming. The Fathom re-release of Kiki’s Delivery Service proved to be another winner for the company, scoring just over a million dollars. The top ten was rounded off by Until Dawn, which made $800k for a total of just under $20 million.
Next weekend should be huge, as there are two major Memorial Day openings happening between Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch remake and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Which one is the priority for you next weekend? Let us know in the comments!
