Weekend Box Office: ‘Gone’ Definitely Not Forgotten

Even with four new nationwide releases offering (somewhat) stiff competition, great reviews and stellar word of mouth kept David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’ at the top of the box office again.

With a very mild 29% drop-off, ‘Gone Girl‘ locked in the #1 spot with a $26.8 million second weekend. After ten days, the sick and twisted (and awesome) marital thriller has pulled in $78.2 million and just might outgross Fincher’s biggest domestic title to date (‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button‘ at $127.5 million).

Second place went to ‘Dracula Untold‘, Universal’s first Classic Monster reboot. Without a single big-name star, the vampire origin tale opened to a better-than-expected $23.4 million. The film is also doing pretty solid business overseas. After ten days in some foreign markets, the movie has earned $62.6 million, giving it a worldwide total of $86 million already.

Although it should have offered perfect counter-programming, Disney’s absurdly titled ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day‘ was a bit of a disappointment. The family flick debuted in the #3 spot with $19.1 million. Considering that the picture was shot on a $28 million budget, it’s not a flop, but it’s certainly not the big success that the studio hoped for.

Last week’s ‘Annabelle‘ slipped 56% in its second weekend. That’s about on par with most horror movies, especially of the R-rated variety. The ‘Conjuring‘ spin-off added $16.3 million to its pocket, giving it a ten-day total of $62.1 million. That’s actually huge when you take into account that it was shot with a mere $6.5 million budget.

Rounding out the Top 5 was Robert Downey, Jr’.s blatant Oscar bid, ‘The Judge‘. The buzz surrounding ‘Gone Girl’ must have stolen away a great percentage of the adult audience, because ‘The Judge’ debuted to just $13.3 million. With a lot of competition on the horizon, it’s hard to foresee this movie doing much long-term business.

Lionsgate’s barely-marketed infidelity thriller ‘Addicted‘ had a great opening with a per-screen average actually higher than any other movie in the Top 10. From 846 screens, ‘Addicted’ pulled in $7.6 million and landed in the #7 spot.

Surprising everyone, documentary ‘Meet the Mormons‘ closed out the Top 10. From 317 locations, the faith-based picture pulled in $3 million. Independent label Purdie Distribution plans to push the film’s expansion after its first week.

Focus Features must not be feeling too great about ‘Kill the Messenger‘ right now. The based-on-a-true-story thriller starring Jeremy Renner only pulled in $939,000 from 374 locations, for a per-screen average of $2,511. That’s probably going to dampen the studio’s expansion plans.

On the flipside, Sony Pictures Classics and The Weinstein Company’s limited releases did very well this weekend. Sony’s ‘Whiplash‘ scored $144,000 from six screens and Weinstein’s ‘St. Vincent‘ grossed $121,000 from four locations. Both have planned expansions in the works, but ‘St. Vincent’ is said to be getting a pretty big release starting this coming weekend.

Weekend numbers have yet to be released for ‘Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead’.

Top 10:

1. ‘Gone Girl’ (Fox) – $26,800,000

2. ‘Dracula Untold’ (Universal) – $23,457,000

3. ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’ (Buena Vista) – $19,100,000

4. ‘Annabelle’ (Warner Bros.) – $16,365,000

5. ‘The Judge’ (Warner Bros.) – $13,330,000

6. ‘The Equalizer’ (Sony) – $9,725,000

7. ‘Addicted’ (Lionsgate) – $7,600,000

8. ‘The Maze Runner’ (Fox) – $7,500,000

9. ‘The BoxTrolls’ (Focus) – $6,676,000

10. ‘Meet the Mormons’ (Purdie) – $3,000,000

2 comments

  1. I’m surprised THE JUDGE didn’t fare a little better, but GONE GIRL is such a great movie, I have no problem with that being moviegoers’ first choice. It will be interesting to see if Brad Pitt’s FURY can knock GONE GIRL from the #1 spot next weekend. I’m guessing no.

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