Continuing its hefty October run was David Fincher’s Gone Girl, which for the third weekend in a row had the smallest week-to-week drop of any film in the top ten. Earning $11.1 million to take fourth position, the successful adaptation was down 37% from the previous weekend. With $124.1 million so far, it is days away from surpassing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to be the director’s biggest film in North America. A total near $150 million is probable for the $61-million production – and it can go higher if the film’s Oscar prospects pan out.
In fifth place was the 3D fantasy adventure The Book of Life, which dropped more than expected for a family film to earn $9.8 million in its second weekend. The 42% drop is a bit hefty, considering there were no new openers aimed at young audiences and the film is well positioned to cater to the upcoming end-of-October holiday. The Book of Life, which has Guillermo del Toro on as a producer, has made $29.9 million so far and will have to stretch its legs to get to $50 million. (The Boxtrolls, which had a stronger initial run earlier this month, is also struggling to get to this mark, likely due to competition from The Book of Life.)
This weekend was also full of good to great expansions. The Bill Murray comedy-drama St. Vincent significantly raised its theater count, and took sixth place with $8.1 million. With strong word-of-mouth from crowds this weekend, the comedy will hope to be effective counter-programming for the heavier drama and horror fare that has done so well this month. After a couple of weeks in limited release, St. Vincent has earned $9.2 million. Meanwhile, the buzzy meta-comedy Birdman had another explosive weekend. In just 50 theaters, the film brought in $1.4 million, raising its total to $2.1 million after just 10 days of a platform release. Expect a long road ahead for this title, as Birdman is receiving some of the best awards buzz of any film.
Two openers did strong business in limited release, although the one with more star power had more of a modest start. Laggies, which stars Keira Knightley and Sam Rockwell, took in $78,500 from five theaters. That is decent but with a lot of buzz from Sundance and Toronto, a bigger berth was expected. Meanwhile, it was a good weekend for the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour. The film has been earning rave reviews and a potential Best Documentary slot could be in order.
Here are the numbers for the Top 10 films at the North American box office for the weekend of October 24 through 26, 2014:
1. Ouija – $20 million (NEW)
2. John Wick – $14.2 million (NEW)
3. Fury – $13 million ($46.1 million total)
4. Gone Girl – $11.1 million ($124.1 million total)
5. The Book of Life – $9.8 million ($29.9 million total)
6. St. Vincent – $8.1 million ($9.2 million total)
7. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – $7 million ($45.5 million total)
8. The Best of Me – $4.7 million ($17.7 million total)
9. The Judge – $4.3 million ($34.4 million total)
10. Dracula Untold – $4.3 million ($48.3 million total)
NOTE: These numbers are weekend estimates based on Friday and Saturday’s estimated takes. Actual numbers for the three-day weekend are reported on Monday afternoon.