For the first time since early August, a new release has managed to leapfrog over Michael Bay’s turtle ninjas and Marvel’s galaxy guardians to take the top spot at the box office.
Screen Gems’ thriller ‘No Good Deed‘ opened to a strong $24.5 million from 2,175 locations. Many comparisons are being made to the same studio’s 2009 thriller ‘Obsessed‘. If ‘Good Deed’ goes that route, its second weekend ought to suffer a considerable drop.
Despite this one good debut, the weekend in general was slow once again.
Second place went to another new title, ‘Dolphin Tale 2‘, which earned $16.5 million. Although down 14% from the first ‘Dolphin Tale‘, the original installment benefited from the added bonus of 3D ticket sales. The sequel is only available in 2D, so those extra earnings weren’t applicable this time. With no other family movies opening until ‘The Boxtrolls’ on Sept. 26, ‘Dolphin Tale 2’ ought to do just fine.
‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘ slipped into the #3 spot, which is the lowest weekend ranking it has held at the box office during its seven-week run. Even so, Marvel’s blockbuster only dropped 22%, grossing another $8 million. That makes it the first film of 2014 to cross the (domestic) $300 million mark. With another $300+ million internationally, ‘Guardians’ now has a $611 million worldwide total with a few more markets still to break into.
Meanwhile, ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‘ dropped 26% into the #4 spot. The film’s $4.8 million sixth weekend pushed the Michael Bay-produced reboot up to $181 million.
Rounding out the Top 5 was five-week-old ‘Let’s Be Cops‘, which also declined only 22%. An additional $4.3 million pushed the movie’s domestic run up to $72.9 million. That’s pretty fantastic for a simple $17 million comedy.
Fox Searchlight’s crime drama ‘The Drop‘ did fairly well. Most reports credit its success to being the final film starring James Gandolfini. From 809 locations, the mobster flick pulled in $4.2 million. The per-screen average of $5,192 is strong enough that Searchlight will expand the release north of 1,000 screens in the coming weeks.
Two of the weekend’s indie films were highly successful in limited release. From 15 locations, the Bill Hader/Kristen Wiig drama ‘The Skeleton Twins‘ pulled in $411,000, for a per-screen average of $27,400. On just four screens, the Weinstein Company’s ‘The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them‘ scored $77,200, or $19,300 per-screen.
On the other hand, the conclusion of the Ayn Rand trilogy, ‘Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt?‘ grossed $355,000 from 242 locations, for a per-screen average of just $1,467.
Top 10:
1. ‘No Good Deed’ (Screen Gems) – $24,500,000
2. ‘Dolphin Tale 2’ (Warner Bros.) – $16,550,000
3. ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ (Buena Vista) – $8,041,000
4. ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ (Paramount) – $4,800,000
5. ‘Let’s Be Cops’ (Fox) – $4,300,000
6. ‘The Drop’ (Fox Searchlight) – $4,200,000
7. ‘If I Stay’ (Warner Bros.) – $4,050,000
8. ‘The November Man’ (Relativity) – $2,750,000
9. ‘The Giver’ (Weinstein) – $2,626,000
10. ‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’ (Buena Vista) – $2,461,000
