This weekend, it was a close race for first place at the North American box office between two new releases but one thing was certain — both films overperformed and led the marketplace to the highest-grossing October weekend in history.
David Fincher’s latest thriller Gone Girl opened at number one with an estimated $38M from 3,014 locations for a sizzling $12,608 average. Among adult dramas launching in October, it was better than such Best Picture Oscar nominees as The Departed, Captain Phillips, Fincher’s The Social Network, and Argo from Ben Affleck, who headlines Fox’s Gone Girl.
With strong reviews and an opening night slot last week at the New York Film Festival giving it some prestige, Girl tapped into fans of these kinds of crime dramas as well as the multitudes of lovers of the best-selling novel. White adult women made up the core audience. Studio research showed that the crowd was 60% female, 75% over 25, and 67% Caucasian. Despite praise from critics, the CinemaScore grade from moviegoers was only a decent B. Overseas, the story of a man under suspicion for the disappearance of his wife opened to an estimated $24.6M from 39 markets for a global debut of $62.6M.
After a year of mostly sluggish openings, the horror genre came back to life with the sensational debut of the fright flick Annabelle, which grossed an estimated $37.2M from 3,185 theaters for a stellar $11,680 average. The R-rated tale took advantage of being a spinoff from last year’s runaway smash The Conjuring as well as being released in the Halloween month of October. Brand awareness was key as was the timing.
Annabelle had broad appeal as females edged out males by just a slim margin being 51% of the crowd. And it was that rare film nowadays to see under-25s make up the majority of its audience, at 54%. Reviews were lackluster but the B CinemaScore grade was quite respectable for a horror film, so audiences were pretty satisfied. Costing just $6.5M to produce, Annabelle will be one of the more profitable studio releases of the year and Warners will certainly look to mine the Conjuring franchise some more. That smash opened in July 2013 to $41.9M and had great legs heading to a $137.4M finish. The Conjuring 2 is already slated for an October 23 release next year.
Denzel Washington’s latest hit thriller The Equalizer had a good second weekend hold despite all the competition. The Sony release fell a moderate 44% to an estimated $19M and upped its cume to a robust $64.5M. More adult-driven dramas and thrillers are on the way this month but if this R-rated revenge flick can keep up the pace, it may end up with a $110M finish from North America.
The animated film The Boxtrolls enjoyed a terrific sophomore frame slipping only 28% to an estimated $12.4M pushing the cume to $32.5M for Focus. The creepy toon should stay relevant throughout the Halloween season and may find its way to a solid $65M or more. Adventure drama The Maze Runner held up well again with an estimated $12M, off just 31%, for a new total of $73.9M for Fox. Breaking $100M is likely.
The critically panned Nicolas Cage film Left Behind opened in sixth with an estimated $6.9M from 1,825 locations for a decent $3,753 average. The PG-13 doomsday thriller was released by Freestyle and was marketed to the faith-based crowd, which showed up this past spring in hefty numbers for so many engaging films.
This Is Where I Leave You dropped 42% to an estimated $4M for a cume to date of $29M for Warner Bros. The studio’s family drama Dolphin Tale 2 slipped only 26% in its fourth round to an estimated $3.5M for a new total of $38M.
Spending its tenth weekend in the top ten, the remarkable blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy eased just 19% to an estimated $3M for a new cume of $323.4M putting it at number 32 on the list of all-time domestic blockbusters. Falling 45% was the thriller No Good Deed with an estimated $2.5M giving Sony $50.2M.
Two new films in limited release debuted just outside the top ten. The action-romance Bang Bang scored the biggest opening weekend of the year for a Bollywood film in North America, debuting to an estimated $1.2M from 271 locations for a $4,483 average. Cume for F.I.P. since its Thursday launch is $1.4M. Reese Witherspoon’s well-reviewed new drama The Good Lie opened to an estimated $935,000 from 461 sites for a weak $2,028 average for Warner Bros. It did earn an A+ CinemaScore grade, though.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $138.5M which was up 24% from last year when Gravity debuted at number one with an October record $55.8M; and up 7% from 2012 when Taken 2 opened on top with $49.5M.
