*Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Lionsgate.*

Warner Bros. and New Line’s ‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ is headed for a franchise-best debut, pulling in a strong $21 million across Friday and preview screenings from 3,523 theaters. In contrast, Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye’s psychological musical drama ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ is off to a weak start, managing just $2.33 million from its opening day and preview events.

‘Bloodlines,’ the sixth installment in the long-running horror series, easily eclipsed the previous opening day record set by 2009’s ‘The Final Destination,’ which launched during the height of the 3D movie trend with $27.4 million. With the benefit of higher ticket prices from IMAX and premium-format screens, ‘Bloodlines’ is poised to outperform that figure comfortably by weekend end.

The ‘Final Destination’ series, which began in 2000, has built its brand around elaborate, domino-effect death sequences — a concept that still resonates. Directed by Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky, ‘Bloodlines’ has earned the best critical reception in series history and landed a solid “B+” Cinema Score from audiences. Produced for $50 million, the film is off to a promising start both domestically and internationally, where it has already amassed $47.4 million.

‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ — a visually ambitious, surrealist film from director Trey Edward Shults — has opened in 2,020 locations but failed to generate much momentum. Lionsgate is only handling distribution, not financing the film, which had a $15 million budget. Co-starring Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, the project is a multimedia extension of The Weeknd’s recent album and world tour, co-produced by Republic Records, Manic Phase Productions, Live Nation, and CAA.

Despite The Weeknd’s global popularity as a performer, that appeal hasn’t translated at the box office. With an opening weekend projected under $3.6 million and a low “C-” Cinema Score, the film is unlikely to remain in theaters for long. It follows Tesfaye’s much-criticized 2023 HBO series ‘The Idol,’ and seems to be receiving a similarly mixed reaction.

Elsewhere on the charts, Warner Bros. is dominating not just first place but second as well. The studio’s vampire thriller ‘Sinners,’ now in its fifth weekend, brought in another $4.35 million on Friday — enough to edge past Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts’ for the day. Directed by Ryan Coogler, ‘Sinners’ has regained IMAX screens for one final week of 70mm showings, which is boosting its momentum.

By Saturday, ‘Sinners’ will surpass ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ ($234 million) to rank as the 12th highest-grossing R-rated film ever in North America. It’s projected to finish the weekend with over $240 million in domestic earnings. No original live-action release has had this level of success since ‘Gravity’ in 2013, which ended its run with $274 million. Whether ‘Sinners’ can match that mark remains to be seen.

Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts,’ from Disney, is close behind with another $4.2 million on Friday — a 53% drop from the previous week. The film’s domestic total is expected to hit $154 million by the end of its third weekend. While it’s performing better than ‘Captain America: Brave New World,’ released earlier this year, ‘Thunderbolts’ has now slipped behind ‘Sinners’ in the rankings. With upcoming competition like ‘Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning’ and Disney’s ‘Lilo & Stitch,’ its future growth may be limited.

In fourth place, ‘A Minecraft Movie’ from Warner Bros. and Legendary continues to hold on in its seventh weekend, adding $1.3 million on Friday. The film, now available on premium video-on-demand platforms, is down just 30% from last week. Over the weekend, it is set to pass ‘Jurassic Park’ ($415 million) and enter the all-time domestic top 40.

Rounding out the top five is ‘The Accountant 2,’ distributed by Amazon MGM. The Ben Affleck-led action sequel earned $1.2 million on Friday and is expected to reach $4.5 million for the weekend. With a domestic total exceeding $58 million, it’s trailing the original 2016 film by about 18%, despite its much larger production budget.

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