Box Office Results Dictating Friday The 13th Sequel Release?

As is with every film that is created in Hollywood, especially nowadays, a film's success is measured in ticket sales. It is believed that one reason that a new Friday The 13th sequel has not been given the green light is due to the historic drop of the 2009 film from the opening weekend to the second weekend in theaters, which was in the area of 80%.

That is an alarming amount, however, we think that the overall gross accumulated in theatrical dollars alone warrants another visit to Crystal Lake. Below is an excerpt from an article written on Box Office Mojo after the opening weekend of Friday The 13th 2009. It outlines the success of the film with some interesting and exciting comparisons.

With $43.6 million on approximately 4,000 screens at 3,105 sites over the four-day weekend, Friday the 13th skewered the starts of its franchise predecessors, over one and a half times the opening attendance of the series at its peak, and it handily out-grossed the debut of Halloween (2007). It also delivered the top-grossing opening for a horror remake and for a slasher movie and had the fourth highest President's Day weekend debut ever, behind Ghost Rider, 50 First Dates and Daredevil.

Now, these numbers are great, but we do understand that the newest film was touted as a reboot and there was a lot of hype. However, with a few years passing by now, the market is ready for a sequel and anticipation would drive audiences back out to the theater.

Friday The 13th 2009 was produced for $19 million dollars, which in Hollywood is a paltry amount these days. However, this was the most expensive movie ever made in the franchise and if Warner Brothers reduced this cost down, which we are sure can easily be done, then there would be less overhead to take on. Now, compare the production cost with how much the film took in.

Domestic: $65,002,019
International: $26,377,032
Worldwide Theatrical Gross: $91,379,051

That is a lot of money brought into both Warner Brothers and Paramount's pockets. Not bad for a movie from a 30 year old franchise. It would be crazy to think that a new sequel would pull this much money in again, but it might be possible with the right story and theatrical angle. The bottom line is this, the 2009 film also took in a decent amount of money in DVD/Blu-Ray sales along with VOD. If the production cost could be cut down to say the $12-13 million range, the lower anticipated theatrical gross coupled with the home video sales would more than justify a sequel and make Warner Bros. a lot of money.

If the hang-up is the gross money split between Warner Bros. and Paramount, then Warner needs to find a way for a clean break from Paramount. Sequels equal money in Friday The 13th land. Paramount rode that money check home for a decade. Warner Bros. should figure a way to do that as well!