Friday saw a 4.5% increase in box office revenue over the previous Friday.

1. The Final Destination - $10.9M
2. Halloween 2 - $7.6M
3. Inglourious Basterds - $5.9M
4. District 9 - $3M
5. G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra - $2.3M
6. The Time Traveler's Wife - $2.11M
7. Julie & Julia - $2.1M
8. Shorts - $1.26M
9. Taking Woodstock - $1.2M
10. G-Force - $0.7M

Strangely enough, two horror movies were scheduled to open head to head this weekend which in most normal circumstances would see each film stealing the other's audience (which is why it usually does not happen this way). Both turned out okay, but the clear winner is THE FINAL DESTINATION with an estimated $10.9M, which probably crossed the line in first place thanks to its 3-D gimmick (and as such higher ticket price). This fourth film in the series is likely to earn around $25-$30M over the weekend which makes it the clear winner. Coming in second is HALLOWEEN 2, the sequel to the reboot of the original horror franchise (this is where Hollywood is now, doing sequels to reboots!). This film did less business than THE FINAL DESTINATION but did earn a horror-healthy $7.6M on opening day.

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS came back down to Earth this Friday as the Tarantino-fanboy rush eases. The film earned an estimated $5.9M, down around 59% on last Friday which is not too bad all things considered. DISTRICT 9 saw a similar fate, although that film is well on the way to $100M against its tiny $30M budget.

The only other new opener (although it opened on Wednesday) is TAKING WOODSTOCK from Focus Features which earned a small $1.2M on Friday. Other returning films slipped down the Top 10 to make way for the horror-fest in the top 2 spots but still earning decent money.

Stay tuned for a more comprehensive wrap-up of the weekend box office in North America for 28-30 August 2009.

The Top 10 at the North American box office took in an estimated total of $37 million for the whole of Friday 28th August 2009.