Despite a good showing from the dreadfully reviewed new opener Dracula Untold, Gone Girl repeated at number one this week, dropping just 30% from last weekend for another $26 million and a $78 million dollar total. At this rate, it will likely pass Benjamin Button ($127 million) to become David Fincher's highest grossing movie. Dracula meanwhile, opened in second with $23 million and an "A-" Cinemascore, so that's a pretty good showing for the fantasy, with audiences mostly male and under 25.
In third was Steve Carell's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which actually came in fairly strong, with $19 million and an audience that was 67% families. Live action family films were once a popular genre, but they don't often get made anymore, so this PG-rated Disney release is something of a rarity these days. Annabelle plunged 55% to fourth place, as all the cheap horror movies tend to do, while Robert Downey Jr.'s The Judge opened in fifth with just $13.3 million, a pretty disappointing number for the poorly received courtroom drama.
Top 5:
- Gone Girl- $26.8 million
- Dracula Untold- $23.5 million
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day- $19 million
- Annabelle- $16.4 million
- The Judge- $13.3 million
In limited release, the Sundance winner Whiplash opened with a $24k average from six screens, which is pretty strong (and may have good word of mouth since Oscar buzz is building fast for this critical darling), and The Weinstein Company's Bill Murray starrer St. Vincent also opened well, with an even better $30k avg from just four screens. Next week it's Brad Pitt's Fury and the animated film Book of Life, with a limited release set for Birdman, the first major Oscar contender to debut for general audiences.
