No two ways about it now, the summer movie season has arrived. While things had already kicked off with the arrival of Marvel’s Thunderbolts* a few weeks ago, the horror crowd has been waiting for a blockbuster befitting the biggest moviegoing season of the year. Safe to say, it arrived over the weekend in the form of Warner Bros. and New Line’s Final Destination Bloodlines.
See also: DEAD BY DAYLIGHT IN 2025: FNAF, The Witcher, Boulet Brothers And More
It’s been 25 years since the original Final Destination kicked things off and 14 years since Final Destination 5 hit theaters and it was crystal clear that audiences were ready to watch more of Death’s sick games unfold on the silver screen. To that end, Bloodlines opened to an estimated $51 million domestically to go with another $51 overseas for a whopping $102 million debut. Mind you, prior to this the biggest opening weekend for any entry in the franchise was $27.4 million for 2009’s The Final Destination, which finished with $187 million globally.
It’s safe to say that this latest entry, directed by Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky, is going to coast past that total in mere weeks. It’s the biggest opening for a horror movie in 2025 thus far, topping Ryan Coogler’s Sinners ($48 million). Put simply, most pundits and the industry at large dramatically underestimated just how much audiences were going to show up for a new Final Destination. Even optimistic pre-release estimates had the movie taking in around $35 million. Safe to say, those estimates were modest.
The sixth entry in the long-running series centers on a college student who is plagued by a violent recurring nightmare and heads home to track down an old family member who might be able to break the cycle. it stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Brec Bassinger and Tony Todd. Bloodlines has been met with very solid reviews, which should help keep audiences coming in the weeks ahead, even as huge movies like Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning arrive. And to think, this movie originally was going to go directly to HBO Max. Instead, it delivered the goods on a primetime summer release date, in IMAX no less.
Elsewhere, The Weeknd and Jenna Ortega’s Hurry Up Tomorrow bombed in its debut. It made just $3.3 million on over 2,000 screens. With such big stars on board, that’s a lousy start and it’s certainly not what Lionsgate had in mind when they picked this one up. Chalk it up to competition or mixed reviews, but this one is going to have to rely on streaming to justify its existence.
In holdover news, Sinners continued its wildly impressive run on its fifth weekend, adding another $15.4 million to its ever-growing total. Coogler’s acclaimed vampire flick has now amassed $314.5 million globally. If overseas grosses can somehow pick up, $400 million is still within reach. Either way, Warner Bros. is having a great year, particularly in the realm of horror.
Meanwhile, last weekend’s indie sensation Clown in a Cornfield was hit pretty hard by the competition. It dropped more than 63% for a $1.3 million second weekend. Depending on how things go, it still has a shot at cracking $10 million domestically. Sony’s Until Dawn clinged onto a spot in the top ten on its fourth weekend adding another $800,000. A quiet hit given its $15 million budget, it’s a few nickels short of $50 million globally.
Looking ahead, we’ve got a massive memorial day showdown with Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opening this upcoming weekend. Mission Stitchpossible isn’t as catchy as Barbenheimer, but it should be a monster all the same. As far as horror goes, May 30 will see the release of Bring Her Back, the latest from directors Danny and Michael Philippou, aka the guys behind Talk to Me, will arrive alongside Karate Kid: Legends on what figures to be a crowded weekend.
You can see the full list of the top ten movies at the box office for the weekend of May 16, 2025, below. For more, get the lowdown on the wild world record set by Final Destination Bloodlines.
- Final Destination Bloodlines – $51 million (first weekend)
- Thunderbolts* – $16.5 million (third weekend)
- Sinners – $15.4 million (fifth weekend)
- A Minecraft Movie – $5.8 million (seventh weekend)
- The Accountant 2 – $4.9 million (fourth weekend)
- Hurry Up Tomorrow – $3.3 million (first weekend)
- Friendship – $1.4 million (second weekend)
- Clown in a Cornfield – $1.3 million (second weekend)
- Until Dawn – $800,000 (fourth weekend)
- The Amateur – $712,000 (sixth weekend)
