Who knew Jason Voorhies was such a ladies man?
This Valentine’s Day weekend, the latest antics of Crystal Lake’s most famous hockey and homicide enthusiast attracted a record-setting $42 million this weekend — $19.3 million on Friday alone.
That catapulted the box office to what is shaping up to be the best Presidents Day weekend on record.
Monday update: The four-day estimate pushed the box office total for "Friday the 13th" to an estimated $50.5 million, as the Michael Bay-produced movie lost no steam on Sunday.
And while it may be surprising to some, young women had much to do to with making the $19 million remake of “Friday the 13th” the biggest opening ever for a horror film.
Overall, it was a good-news weekend for Hollywood. Paul Dergarabedian of Media By Numbers predicted that this year’s four-day holiday take will hit $190 million by Monday evening, breaking the $165.5 million record set in ’07.
But the strong female response to "Friday" was perhaps the most striking part of it. Dan Fellman, president of Warner Bros. domestic theatrical distribution, said 45% of “Friday”’s audience was female. An industry insider earlier this week said crowds of both men and women in their teens and twenties flooded midnight screenings on Thursday night/Friday morning across the country.
“It’s very consistent with a lot of these movies. Young females particularly like the horror genre. Somebody in my office said, ‘What’s better than a psycho in a hockey mask for Valentine’s Day?’” Fellman said.
Despite the strong female turnout, Disney’s debut comedy "Confessions of a Shopaholic" came in the third spot.
Instead, women were still flocking to last week’s number one film, “He’s Just Not That Into You,” which took the number two spot with $19.6 million this weekend.
“Coraline” and “Confessions of a Shopaholic” rounded out the box office with “Taken” at number three.
This weekend’s other new release, “The International,” took in only $10 million. The film starring Clive Owen landed at the number seven spot sandwiched between “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “The Pink Panther 2.”
“‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ did well with $15.4 million. But it had a lot of competition… more than you’d ordinarily realize from ‘Friday the 13th,’” said Paul Dergarabedian of Media By Numbers, who predicts this year’s four-day holiday take will hit $190 million by Monday evening, breaking the $165.5 million record set in ’07.
“Women love horror movies just as much if not more than men do. That one I think really benefited from the female audience, which I think continues to be a major factor at the box office.”
Today marked the second week in a row women proved to be the driving force behind the box office. Last weekend, “Into You” and “Coraline” performed better than expected while the sophomoric “Pink Panther 2” tanked.
It will be interesting to see if women turn out for next week’s big openers “Fired Up!” and “Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail.” Neither comedy looks like typical feminine faire, but if Jason can become everyone’s favorite Valentine, anything’s possible.
