A Dozen Scary Weird Things to Know About Friday the 13th and Money

BoxOfficeMojo added up the ticket sales of all 12 movies in the "Friday the 13th" franchise, and the sum came to $380 million, or a whopping $770 million after adjusting for inflation. The overall highest-grossing film was 2003's Freddy Vs. Jason ($82.6 million), but after adjusting for inflation the original Friday the 13th came out on top, with its 1980 haul of $40 million translating to $123 million today. Oh, and you might have noticed that with a dozen Jason movies, another one would seem inevitable to make it 13. Sure enough, there's one in the works that was originally supposed to be released on March 13, 2015, but has been pushed back to next year.

If you are going to mark your body permanently, you'd think you'd want to pay good money to get it right. You'd perhaps also think you wouldn't want to tempt fate by doing it on a day known for bad luck. The proliferation of $13 tattoo deals that periodically pop up on Friday the 13th in cities such as Las Vegas, Tampa, St. Louis, and Charleston fly in the face of that kind of thinking. Generally speaking, participating tattoo parlors offer a limited number of small tats for $13, and customers are expected to tip $7. Some vendors also discount all tattoos by 13% or sell T-shirts for (you guessed it) $13.

Finnair offers a daily 95-minute flight, AY666—a.k.a. Flight #666—straight to HEL. The odd coincidence was noticed a few years ago by the media, and it's not quite as ominous as it sounds: The entirety of the flight is in Scandinavia, not the underworld, as it departs CPH (Copenhagen) bound for HEL (Helsinki). Earlier this week we searched to see how much a flight to HEL would cost on Friday the 13th. The total was 1,028 Danish Krone, or about US$148. We only looked up the one-way price, because we're assuming there are no round trips to HEL.

Some studies have indicated that Friday 13th is a relatively cheap day to fly because demand is so low, presumably due to the superstitious not wanting to travel that day. This might be a myth, or at least there should be a caveat because Fridays and Sundays are universally considered the most expensive days of the week to fly. Still, as Donald Dossey, a folklore historian and founder of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, N.C., explained in a National Geographic story, "It's been estimated that [U.S.] $800 or $900 million is lost in business on this day because people will not fly or do business they normally would do."

Holiday Folklore, Phobias, and Fun: Mythical Origins, Scientific Treatment and Superstitious "Cures" is one of several products sold by Dossey on his Phobia Institute site. The regular price for the 1992 book is $15, though a "web price" is listed at $10 (then add $5 for shipping). Used copies of the book are also listed for $4 at Amazon (1¢ + $3.99 shipping).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Friday the 13th tends to be a slow day for weddings compared with other Fridays. Hence the occasional 10% to 15% discount offered by venues for couples unafraid to seize the date.

Viva Las Vegas Weddings has been promoting the fact that 2015 has three Friday the 13ths (in February, March, and November), and offers a variety of special creepy themes appropriate for the date—Zombie Wedding (pictured), Dracula's Tomb, Ghoulish Gazebo, Graveyard Wedding, and so on. Friday the 13th wedding packages start at $600, compared with $450 for normal ones.

According to research cited by Zillow, 40% of real estate agents say that houses with a No. 13 address are known to cause resistance among buyers, and that sellers often have to lower prices as a result.

Yes, the stock market's mini-crash in 1989 took place on a Friday the 13th in October. But overall, Friday the 13ths tend to be fairly lucky days for investors, with greater odds for a positive gain in the S&P 500 compared with other days.

The Solomon Pond Mall in eastern Massachusetts has declared this week's Friday the 13th as a "Lucky Day" for shoppers. Simply show the linked message to guest services, and you'll receive a goody bag filled with freebies like Teavana tea and hair care samples, as well as a coupon for a $1 Auntie Anne's pretzel.

This Friday, like every Friday the 13th, is potentially a big moneymaker for haunted house and other creepy attractions. Entrance can cost a pretty penny too, especially in Texas, which seems to be ground zero for haunted houses. For instance, the Cutting Edge Haunted House in Fort Worth charges $25 to $35 plus a $3.50 per-ticket service fee ($5 off for kids!), while the VIP Experience at the Dark Hour Haunted House in Plano runs $65 plus a $4.25 fee. At the lower end, there's the Zombie Apocalypse for $16.50 in Colorado Springs, or the Scared City Haunted House in Jonesboro, Arkansas, which is charging $10 admission for "ONE LAST NIGHT" before they remodel for the 2015 Halloween season.

This Friday, Los Angeles's Griffith Park—probably best known as the setting for key scenes in Rebel Without a Cause—is hosting the "Great Horror Campout." Billed as a "12-hour, overnight, interactive horror camping adventure" that includes "highly immersive terror" activities like the Hell Hunt Experience and an after-dark screening of Friday the 13th. Naturally, tickets cost $13 when purchased in advance. Among the suggested items campers should bring for the evening are drinks, snacks, sleeping bag, and a "Few Changes of Underwear."

Why end it here, you might ask, instead of pushing the list to 13 Friday the 13th-related things instead of 12? We were just too scared to go there.