The rest of the films in top five finished with less than $800,000 separating third place from fifth. Fury stabilized in third place after a big drop last weekend, dipping only 32% in this frame to gross $9.1 million. With $60.4 million in the bank so far, a total around $80 million looks like a good goal for the WWII drama. Meanwhile, David Fincher’s Gone Girl, which is now the director’s biggest grosser in North America, fell only 20% to grab an extra $8.8 million. The $150 million mark is in its sights, which is superb for an R-rated thriller with mixed word-of-mouth. With little occupying families after the holiday frenzy on Friday, The Book of Life held up quite well, dropping only 18% to take $8.3 million and fifth place. With $40.5 million so far, it is bound to end its run with about $55 million – depending on how much Big Hero 6 grabs next weekend.
Meanwhile, as timid as Nightcrawler‘s debut was, it looked much better than two other thriller wide-release titles that didn’t even crack the Top 10. Debuting in 14th place was Before I Go to Sleep, another stinker from Clarius Entertainment, earning just $2.1 million from nearly 2,000 theaters. Despite Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman’s presence, the source material is not very popular, reviews were poor and the marketing campaign was almost non-existent. Meanwhile, whoever thought re-releasing Saw on its 10th anniversary was a good idea should find themselves out of a job Monday morning. It made $650,000 from 2,063 auditoriums – or a horrifying $315 per theater. It is the third-worst debut ever for a movie opening in more than 2,000 theaters.
Here are the numbers for the Top 10 films at the North American box office for the weekend of October 31 through November 2, 2014:
1. Nightcrawler – $10.9 million
2. Ouija – $10.9 million ($35 million total)
3. Fury – $9.1 million ($60.4 million total)
4. Gone Girl – $8.8 million ($136.6 million total)
5. The Book of Life – $8.3 million ($40.5 million total)
6. John Wick – $8.1 million ($27.6 million total)
7. St. Vincent – $7.8 million ($19.5 million total)
8. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – $6.5 million ($53.6 million total)
9. The Judge – $3.4 million ($39.6 million total)
10. Dracula Untold – $2.9 million ($52.9 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.