EON

Horror Flicks Take Over the Box Office

Going into the weekend, it looked like there was going to be a tight race between two R-rated horror movies, but with Friday estimates it became evidently clear that “The Final Destination” was going to come out the victor.

The fourth instalment of the gory horror series opened in 3,121 theatres with nearly half of them screening the movie in 3D, and the higher ticket prices helped it gross an estimated $28.3 million over the weekend, an impressive per-theatre average of $9 thousand per venue.

After opening with $38 million last week, Quentin Tarantino’s WWII thriller “Inglourious Basterds” dropped 47% to second place with roughly $20 million and a ten-day total of $73 million domestically.

Rob Zombie’s horror sequel Halloween II didn’t stand a chance against such heavy R-rated competition, as it grossed $17.4 million in just over 3,000 theaters or roughly $5,700 per venue, settling for third place The Neill Blomkamp-directed sci-fi thriller “District 9″ brought in another $10.7 million in fourth place and dropping to fifth place was Stephen Sommers’ G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which tool in $8 million to bring its own gross to $132.4 million.