Weekend Wrap-Up
Fury Advances; Affleck’s Girl Gone From Top Spot
By John Hamann
October 19, 2014
Fifth is The Best of Me, another piece of romantic drivel from the Nicolas Sparks factory. From what I understand, this one brings more unintended laughter than romantic drama, but it still managed to open above $10 million. The Best of Me pulled in $10.2 million from 2,936 venues for Relativity this weekend, not bad versus its $26 million production budget. It also managed to sidestep some hideous reviews, as this one was only 7% fresh at RottenTomatoes. These films do have a fanbase, though, because The Best of Me still managed a Cinemascore of B+ despite being a turd. This is the lowest opening Sparks release behind A Walk to Remember, the dripper that started it all back in 2002, which opened to $12.2 million.
Dracula Untold is sixth this weekend, as it slides badly from its second place result from last weekend. After opening to $23.5 million last weekend, Dracula fell hard, dropping 58% all the way down to $9.9 million. This one cost $70 million to make, so if it weren’t for overseas audiences, where Dracula has already picked up $96 million, this one would be in real trouble. So far, the Universal release has earned $40.7 million stateside and will be limping by the time Halloween rolls around.
Seventh goes to The Judge, which got hurt by another R-rated, star-driven flick entering the marketplace. In its second weekend, the Robert Downey Jr. flick earned $7.9 million, off 39% from its opening frame. The $50 million release has now earned $26.8 million, and is going to need some help overseas to see profitability.
That puts Annabelle down in eighth, but the horror flick still earned $7.9 million despite the lower ranking. The extremely profitable Warner Bros. release fell 50% compared to last weekend, but brought its domestic take up to $74.1 million against a $6.5 million budget. On top of earning 11 times its production budget stateside, Annabelle has also earned more than $75 million overseas, making this one of the more profitable releases of the year.
The Equalizer is ninth this weekend, as so much strong product has pushed this Denzel Washington feature toward the bottom faster than I would have thought. The Equalizer earned another $5.4 million this weekend, off 44%, but pushes its domestic total up to $89.2 million. Overseas, the $55 million Sony release has pulled in almost $70 million.
Tenth is The Maze Runner, which is finally running out of steam. Now in its fifth weekend, The Maze Runner earned another $4.5 million and pushes its total up to $90.8 million. It has also earned a stunning $145 million overseas, all against a budget of only $34 million.
In limited release this weekend, Michael Keaton’s Birdman got started at four theaters and earned a startling venue average of $103,750. We will be talking about this one for a long time, as some real competition for Gone Girl has arrived. In other limited release news, Bill Murray’s St. Vincent expanded to 68 venues, and brought in $685,000, good for a venue average of $10,074. St. Vincent goes nationwide next weekend.
Overall, it was another stellar October 2014 weekend. The top 12 films brought in $122.3 million, yards ahead of the $93.2 million the top 12 found last year, when Gravity led with $30 million. Next weekend brings Keanu Reeves back to cinemas, and if early reviews are any indication, John Wick looks really, really good. Also opening is Ouija, a film that teams McG and Michael Bay (make your own jokes please).
| 1 |
Fury |
Sony |
$23,500,000 |
New |
$23,500,000 |
| 2 |
Gone Girl |
Fox |
$17,800,000 |
- 33% |
$107,068,900 |
| 3 |
The Book of Life |
Fox |
$17,000,000 |
New |
$17,000,000 |
| 4 |
Alexander And the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day |
Disney |
$12,039,000 |
- 34% |
$36,871,000 |
| 5 |
The Best of Me |
Relativity |
$10,200,000 |
New |
$10,200,000 |
| 6 |
Dracula Untold |
Universal |
$9,889,000 |
- 58% |
$40,735,090 |
| 7 |
The Judge |
WARNER BROS. |
$7,940,000 |
- 39% |
$26,843,000 |
| 8 |
Annabelle |
WARNER BROS. |
$7,925,000 |
- 50% |
$74,127,000 |
| 9 |
The Equalizer |
The Weinstein Co. |
$5,450,000 |
- 44% |
$89,170,000 |
| 10 |
The Maze Runner |
Fox |
$4,500,000 |
- 40% |
$90,837,300 |
| 11 |
Addicted |
Lionsgate |
$3,500,000 |
- 53% |
$12,750,000 |
| 12 |
The Boxtrolls |
Focus Features |
$2,670,000 |
- 60% |
$46,055,423 |
| |
Also Opening/Notables |
| |
Birdman |
FOX SEARCHLIGHT |
$415,000 |
New |
$415,000 |
| |
Dear White People |
Roadside Attractions |
$344,136 |
New |
$344,136 |
| |
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya |
Gkids |
$51,686 |
New |
$51,686 |
| |
Rudderless |
Samuel Goldwyn |
$36,000 |
New |
$36,000 |
| |
Listen Up Philip |
Tribeca Film |
$24,291 |
New |
$24,291 |
| |
God the Father |
Rocky Mountain Pictures |
$15,010 |
New |
$15,010 |
| |
The Hacker Wars |
Vitagraph Films |
$3,600 |
New |
$3,600 |
| |
St. Vincent |
|
$685,000 |
+ 523% |
$836,982 |
| |
Meet the Mormons |
Purdie Distribution |
$600,000 |
- 76% |
$4,500,000 |
| |
Kill the Messenger |
Focus Features |
$490,000 |
- 48% |
$1,854,633 |
| |
Whiplash |
Sony Classics |
$210,801 |
+ 56% |
$416,228 |
| |
Awake: the Life of Yogananda |
Counterpoint Films |
$48,473 |
+ 157% |
$82,609 |
| |
The Overnighters |
Drafthouse Films |
$5,462 |
+ 26% |
$12,705 |
| |
Left Behind |
Freestyle |
$395,267 |
- 86% |
$12,594,821 |
| |
My Old Lady |
Cohen Media |
$214,189 |
- 31% |
$3,177,053 |
| |
Guardians of the Galaxy |
Disney |
$1,003,000 |
- 45% |
$327,836,000 |
|
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations
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