“Final Destination: Bloodlines” Dominates Box Office, Revives Franchise
The “Final Destination” franchise is far from dead! Its sixth installment, “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” proved to be a massive hit this past weekend, easily topping the domestic box office with an impressive $51 million in ticket sales. Globally, the film earned an additional $51 million, bringing its worldwide debut to a staggering $102 million.
This success of Final Destination: Bloodlines effectively breathes new life into the 25-year-old horror series, which hadn’t released a new film since 2011. “Bloodlines” opened in 3,523 locations, boosted by strong reviews (a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score) and clever viral marketing, including nods to classic “Final Destination” death traps like logs on trucks.
Beyond the top spot, Disney’s “Thunderbolts” secured second place, adding $16.5 million to its global total, now exceeding $325 million. “Sinners” landed in third with $15.4 million, pushing its worldwide earnings to $316.8 million. Meanwhile, “A Minecraft Movie” brought in an additional $5.9 million, contributing to its impressive $928.6 million global haul. Rounding out the top five was Amazon MGM Studios‘ “The Accountant 2.”
Debuting in sixth place was “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” an experimental thriller co-written by and starring Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye. Directed by Trey Edward Shultz, the film serves as a companion piece to Tesfaye’s music, featuring him as a fictionalized insomniac musician alongside Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan.
“Hurry Up Tomorrow” received a harsh reception from both critics and audiences. It holds a mere 13% on Rotten Tomatoes and was given a dismal C- Cinema Score. Associated Press music writer Maria Sherman characterized it as “an exciting vanity project with surrealist imagination but stiff writing, no stakes, limited emotional weight and an unclear narrative.”
Despite the critical backlash, Lionsgate, which solely handled the release of the R-rated film across over 2,000 screens, Final Destination: Bloodlines found its $3.3 million opening to be a profitable outcome for the studio.
Next weekend looks big for theaters with the nationwide releases of “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” and live-action “Lilo & Stitch.” With the domestic box office already up nearly 15% year-over-year, Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian predicts this weekend will be “the perfect opening act” for a potentially record-breaking Memorial weekend.
Final Destination: Bloodlines
PLOT – Final Destination: Bloodlines
The sixth installment of the “Final Destination” franchise, “Bloodlines,” begins in 1968 with Iris Campbell experiencing a chilling premonition: a high-rise restaurant tower, the Skyview, collapsing due to a gas leak and a shattered chandelier, killing everyone inside. Iris successfully prevents the disaster, unwittingly disrupting Death’s carefully laid plans.
College student Stefani Reyes, Iris’s granddaughter, is haunted by Skyview collapse nightmares. Returning home, she uncovers her estranged family’s secrets and learns her reclusive, overprotective grandmother cursed their lineage by preventing the 1968 tragedy. Death now claims survivors and their descendants in their original order. Iris sacrifices herself to prove this curse, documented in her book of omens, and protect her family.
Despite Iris’s warning, Death’s design quickly unfolds. A family barbecue turns fatal when Stefani’s uncle Howard is killed by a lawn mower. As the family grapples with the escalating danger, they realize Death is targeting them by age, starting with Howard’s branch. During the chaos, Stefani’s cousin Julia is tragically crushed by a garbage truck.
Desperate for a solution, Stefani, her brother Charlie, and their mother Darlene seek out William Bludworth, a man Iris knew who also survived the Skyview collapse. Bludworth, now a retired coroner, reveals two ways to cheat Death: taking another life or dying and being revived. He cites Kimberly Corman as a successful example of the latter.
An attempt to use Bludworth’s revival strategy backfires catastrophically. Erik’s plan to induce an allergic reaction in Bobby for revival leads to a series of gruesome events involving an MRI machine, killing both Erik and Bobby. Realizing Erik’s intervention put him on Death’s list, Stefani, Charlie, and Darlene try to escape to Iris’s fortified cabin. Their RV crashes, and a chain reaction causes the cabin to explode, sending the RV into water. Darlene sacrifices herself to save Charlie, who then successfully revives a drowning Stefani.
However, their brief reprieve is shattered a week later when a train derailment crushes Stefani and Charlie, revealing Stefani’s heart never stopped, thus invalidating her “revival.” Death claims them both, completing its twisted design.
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