Final Destination 3

Final Destination 3
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Wong
Written by	Glen Morgan James Wong
Based on	Characters by Jeffrey Reddick
Produced by	Glen Morgan James Wong Craig Perry Warren Zide
Starring	Mary Elizabeth Winstead Ryan Merriman
Cinematography	Robert McLachlan
Edited by	Chris G. Willingham
Music by	Shirley Walker
Production companies	Hard Eight Pictures Practical Pictures Matinee Pictures Zide/Perry Productions
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release dates	February 2, 2006 (2006-02-02) (Grauman's Chinese Theatre) February 10, 2006 (2006-02-10) (United States)
Running time	93 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million[2]
Box office	$118.9 million[3]

Final Destination 3 is a 2006 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wong. A standalone sequel to Final Destination 2 (2003), it is the third installment in the Final Destination film series. Wong and Glen Morgan, who worked on the franchise's first film, wrote the screenplay. Final Destination 3 stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ryan Merriman, and takes place years after the first film. Winstead plays Wendy Christensen, a high school graduate who has a premonition that a roller coaster she and her classmates are riding will derail. Although she saves some of them, Death begins hunting the survivors. Wendy realizes photographs she took at the amusement park contain clues about her classmates' deaths. With survivor and friend Kevin Fischer (Merriman), Wendy tries to use this knowledge to save the rest of the survivors and ruin Death's scheme.

The film's development began shortly after the release of Final Destination 2; Jeffrey Reddick, creator of the franchise and a co-writer of the first two films, did not return for the third one. Unlike the second film, which was a direct sequel to the first, the producers envisioned Final Destination 3 as a stand-alone film. The idea of featuring a roller coaster derailment as the opening-scene disaster came from New Line Cinema executive Richard Bryant. From the beginning, Wong and Morgan saw control as a major theme in the film. Casting began in March 2005 and concluded in April. Like the previous two installments, it was filmed in Vancouver, Canada. The first two weeks of the three-month shoot were spent filming the scenes involving the rollercoaster derailing.

Following its premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on February 2, 2006, the film was released in cinemas in the United States on February 10, 2006. The DVD, released on July 25, 2006, includes commentaries, documentaries, a deleted scene and an animated video. A special-edition DVD called "Thrill Ride Edition" includes a feature called "Choose Their Fate", which acts as an interactive film, allowing viewers to make decisions at specific points in the film that alter the course of the story.

Final Destination 3 received a mixed critical response. The film was a financial success and, with box office receipts of nearly $118 million, the highest-grossing installment in the franchise at the time. A fourth film, The Final Destination, was released in August 2009.