Sony’s Fury debuted in first place this weekend with $23.70 million. The David Ayer directed war film starring Brad Pitt opened on the low end of pre-release expectations. Fury opened 8 percent ahead of the $22.00 million debut of Sony’s The Monuments Men back in February and 21.5 percent ahead of the $19.50 million start of Sony’s Moneyball back in September of 2011. Like both of those films were able to do, Fury will hope to hold up well going forward.
Fury opened with $8.82 million on Friday (which included a relatively large $1.2 million from Thursday night shows), increased 3 percent on Saturday to take in $9.12 million and fell 37 percent on Sunday to gross $5.76 million. That placed the film’s opening weekend to Friday ratio at a somewhat front-loaded 2.69 to 1. The audience breakdown for Fury skewed towards male moviegoers (60 percent) and slightly towards moviegoers over the age of 35 (51 percent). Fury received an encouraging A- rating on CinemaScore.
After leading the box office each of the past two weekends, Fox’s Gone Girl placed in second this weekend with $17.51 million. The critically acclaimed David Fincher directed film starring Ben Affleck continued to hold up well, as it was down just 34 percent from last weekend. Gone Girl surpassed the $100 million mark this weekend and has now grossed $106.78 million through 17 days of release. Before much longer, Gone Girl will zoom past the $127.51 million final domestic gross of 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to become Fincher’s highest grossing film to date (without adjusting for ticket price inflation).
Fellow Fox release The Book of Life followed closely behind in third with a $17.01 million debut. The modestly budgeted computer animated film opened in line with expectations and likely received an added boost from arriving a couple weeks before Halloween and Day of the Dead. The Book of Life opened nearly on par with the recent $17.28 million launch of The Boxtrolls. The Book of Life started out with $4.99 million on Friday, increased 39 percent on Saturday to take in $6.91 million and declined 26 percent on Sunday to gross $5.16 million. That placed the film’s opening weekend to Friday ratio at 3.41 to 1. Like Fury, The Book of Life also received an encouraging A- rating on CinemaScore.
Fellow family film Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day claimed fourth place with $11.46 million. The Disney release starring Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner fell 38 percent from last weekend. That represented a very solid hold, especially given the added competition for family audiences from The Book of Life. Alexander has grossed $36.29 million through ten days of release, which is in line with expectations and represents a healthy performance with the film’s modest price tag in mind.
Relativity’s The Best of Me rounded out the weekend’s top with $10.00 million. The Nicholas Sparks adaptation starring Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden opened on the low end of its modest expectations. The Best of Me opened softer than most Sparks adaptations, with the film’s performance more closely representing the $13.42 million start of 2008’s Nights in Rodanthe. The Best of Me opened with $4.13 million on Friday, fell 8 percent on Saturday to take in $3.79 million and fell 45 percent on Sunday to gross $2.08 million. That places the film’s opening weekend to Friday ratio at just 2.42 to 1. The Best of Me received a solid B+ rating on CinemaScore, which strongly suggests that the film is going over better with moviegoers than it has with critics.
In their second weekend of release, Universal’s Dracula Untold and Warner’s The Judge claimed sixth and seventh places respectively with $9.99 million and $7.92 million. Dracula Untold was down a sharp 58 percent from last weekend’s stronger than expected start, while The Judge was down a solid 40 percent from last weekend’s modest debut. Respective ten-day total grosses stand at $40.83 million for Dracula Untold and at $26.82 million for The Judge.
Warner’s Annabelle placed in eighth with $7.88 million. The low-budget spin-off to The Conjuring was down a respectable 50 percent and has grossed a stronger than expected $74.08 million in 17 days. Annabelle will face new direct competition next weekend when Universal unleashes Ouija in theaters on Friday.
On the platform front, the critically acclaimed Birdman was off to a terrific start with $424,397 from 4 locations in New York and Los Angeles. The Alejandro González Iñárritu directed film starring Michael Keaton from Fox Searchlight and New Regency generated a massive per-location average of $106,099 for the frame. Birdman will receive a major expansion next weekend.
Share this post