Denzel Washington's revenge thriller The Equalizer took first place this weekend with a strong $35 million debut. Reviews were mixed on the movie, but word of mouth looks to be good, since it came in with an "A-" Cinemascore and played well with both men and women (audiences were split equally). That Denzel, he can draw in just about anybody. It was the third best opening of his career and frequent collaborator director Antoine Fuqua's best. In second place was last week's The Maze Runner, which fell about 50% and came in just ahead of the other new release this week, Laika Studio's The Boxtrolls. The family audience movie did very well actually, despite divisive reviews, and it's the best opening yet for the studio, which was behind other stop-motion animated features Coraline and ParaNorman.
Holdovers made up the rest of the top five, with This is Where I Leave You coming in fourth, falling just 39%, and Dolphin Tale 2 in fifth, which made another $4.8 million. Liam Neeson's A Walk Among the Tombstones did not fare well in its second week, plunging a hefty 67% for a $20 million total so far.
Top 5:
- The Equalizer- $35 million
- The Maze Runner- $17.5 million
- The Boxtrolls- $17 million
- This is Where I Leave You- $7 million
- Dolphin Tale 2- $4.8 million
In limited release, the indie film Pride did well, earning over $84k from 6 locations and receiving an "A" Cinemascore, so look for that to expand and probably get some good word of mouth as it does. Next week it's David Fincher's Gone Girl versus Annabelle, the prequel to last year's horror hit The Conjuring. I have a feeling Annabelle's going to take the crown, but hopefully there's an adult audience out there that's ready for a more prestige thriller, since it's been getting great reviews out of the New York Film Festival this week. See you then!
