Summary
The Final Destination 3D destroyed Halloween 2 in both the first and second weekends. We take a look at why.
Analysis
The second week box office figures are in for both Halloween 2 and The Final Destination. We have already looked at the relative results for the first weekend and have noted the domination of the 3D powered Final Destination on the first weekend.
Now, the relative results for the second weekend can be measured. "The Final Destination" will end up the week about 51% down over its first week while "Halloween 2" will end up at approximately 60% down. There are a couple objective measures out on the web that can evaluate how good the films are.
The most unreliable in predicting anything is of course critical opinion. Both films basically failed the test on rottentomatoes.com, "Final Destination" scoring a dismal 27% and Halloween 2 clocking in at an even more abysmal 20%.
IMDB.com has a polling mechanism whereby users can rate films. The poll is considerably biased in that the people who respond to the poll are hardly a random sampling and are generally those most interested in the film in question. Both scored a 5.3 which given the skewed tendency of the voting sample toward interest in the selected films, is pretty awful as well, but importantly, nearly identical.
Thus, it might well be suspected that the relative drops have something to do with the difference in format. There are two relevant considerations, first there was inadequate 3D capacity to cover the demand on the first week of the run for "The Final Destination", a distinct possibility given the dearth of 3D capability. The second consideration is that the 3D, despite the documented awfulness quotient of the film is driving attendance.
Both are likely to be in play here and both direct us to a similar conclusion. If "The Final Destination" drops an average of 55% for the remainder of its run it will end up at about 65 million total, exceeding all of its predecessors (not in attendance however) and will have drawn slightly more attendance than the previous version, no mean feat for films these days.
The evidence, albeit a little thin suggests that it was the 3D that is driving "The Final Destination" toward greater financial success not the questionable entertainment value of the film itself.
This author consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
