By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
The Second World War thundered into multiplexes in the form of Fury and topped the charts with an estimated $23.6 million opening salvo. The two other national bows included Guillermo Del Toro-produced animated fiesta The Book of Life slotting third with $16.9 million and the three-hankie The Best of Me striking few Sparks, remaining a few sniffles behind at $10.2 million. Platformers ranged from a drop dead $310,000 result for Jason Reitman’s sixth moral tale, Men, Women & Children, at 608 lecterns, to a tempo-setting $202,000 bounce for the percussive stamina test Whiplash at 21 venues.
In the niches Telugu Oka Laila Kosam was off to a good start with $187,000 from 61 venues. However, the big thunder came rom a spate of new exclusives; many positioning for the autumnal awards run-up. Japanese anime The Tale of the Princess Kaguya opened to $49,500 from three screens while epic Chinese Oscar submission The Golden Era grossed $53,100 at 15 sites. Considerably more potent were the discomfortingly humorous race relations satire Dear White People with $351,000 from just 11 playdates and a staggering $422,000 for fine-feathered black comedy Birdman in only four nests.
Frame revenues inched toward $135 million, registering a 12% dip from the prioer weekend. However, it was an impressive 28% upturn from 2013 when the third weekend of Gravity secured the hat trick with $30 million and the top opener was the Carrie remake with a $16.1 million entry.
None of the newcomers attained heights anticipated by trackers, including the well-reviewed Fury, which fell short of predictions that ranged from $30-33 million. The saga of a WWI Itank crew recalled the intensity of the submariners of Das Boot and emulated the similar The Beast of even more distant memory. Studio exit polling indicated an unsurprising 60% male tilt with an older audience estimated at 81% aged 25-years and older. The latter factor proved bonecrushing and suggested a new generation unwilling to embrace a once popular genre that’s only been successfully revisited by Inglouriuous Basterds of late.
The backdrop of Mexico’s Day of the Dead provided an ironic slant for The Book of Life and its colorful, flamboyant style was expected to generate between $18-20 million. The opening crowd tilted 57% female with families dominating and 54% of the opening crowd aged 25-years and younger. Polling also indicated that the audience was a significant but not overwhelming 30% Hispanic which bodes well for its longevity. The film also bowed day and date in 19 foreign climes; primarily in Latin territories familiar with the celebration and grossed an estimated $8.5 million led by Mexico and Brazil with respective openings of $3.8 million and $2 million.
The Nicholas Sparks franchise appears to be fading with his sixth entry in six years, The Best of Me, falling short of $15-16 million expectations. The picture’s performance suggests an audience of fans and scant interest for converts. Sparks’ patented format traditionally plays heavily to women and an older crowd that this weekend opted for other choices.
The award tomtoms beat loudest for Birdman and Whiplash. While neither is at pitched at a best-picture decibel level, each could secure major acting honors for, respectively, Michael Keaton and J.K. Simmons in the supporting category. Keaton faces what should be a fiercely-contested competition with the lineup that includes Eddie Redmayne channeling physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, Timothy Spall painting his Mr. Turner and Benedict Cumberbatch embodying real life code-breaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game.
Weekend (estimates) October 17 – 19, 2014 | |||||
Title | Distributor | Gross (avg) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
Fury | Sony | 23.6 (7,440) | NEW | 3173 | 23.6 |
Gone Girl | Fox | 17.8 (5,480) | -33% | 3249 | 107.1 |
The Book of Life | Fox | 16.9 (5,510) | NEW | 3071 | 16.9 |
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible … Day | BV | 12.0 (3,890) | -35% | 3088 | 36.8 |
The Best of Me | Relativity | 10.2 (3.470) | NEW | 2936 | 10.2 |
Dracula Untold | Uni | 9.9 (3,420) | -58% | 2887 | 40.7 |
The Judge | WB | 7.9 (2,640) | -40% | 3003 | 26.8 |
Annabelle | WB | 7.9 (2,740) | -50% | 2878 | 74.1 |
The Equalizer | Sony | 5.4 (2,390) | -44% | 2262 | 88.1 |
The Maze Runner | Fox | 4.5 (2,080) | -40% | 2155 | 90.8 |
Addicted | Lionsgate | 3.4 (3,320) | -54% | 1037 | 12.8 |
The Boxtrolls | Focus | 2.6 (1,170) | -60% | 2251 | 46 |
Guardians of the Galaxy | BV | 1.0 (1,360) | -45% | 730 | 327.8 |
Left Behind | FreeStyle/eOne | .91 (990) | -68% | 923 | 12.8 |
St. Vincent | Weinstein | .67 (9,880) | 511% | 68 | 0.8 |
Meet the Mormons | Purdie | .58 (1,820) | -77% | 317 | 4.5 |
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Par | .53 (1,420) | 44% | 372 | 189.6 |
This is Where I Leave You | WB | .51 (1,010) | -68% | 502 | 33.2 |
Kill the Messenger | Focus | .49 (1,150) | -48% | 427 | 1.8 |
Birdman | Fox Searchlight | .42 (105,500) | NEW | 4 | 0.42 |
Dear White People | Roadside | .35 (31,900) | NEW | 11 | 0.35 |
Dolphin Tale 2 | WB | .33 (650) | -74% | 502 | 40.8 |
No Good Deed | Sony | .32 (1,070) | -66% | 296 | 52.3 |
Men, Women & Children | Par | .31 (510) | 595% | 608 | 0.47 |
The Skeleton Twins | Roadside | .29 (1,860) | -32% | 155 | 4.7 |
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $126.80 | ||||
% Change (Last Year) | 28% | ||||
% Change (Last Week) | -12% | ||||
Also debuting/expanding | |||||
My Old Lady | Cohen Media | .21 (1.630) | -32% | 129 | 3.2 |
Pride | CBS/Remstar | .20 (1,760) | -8% | 115 | 0.86 |
Whiplash | Sony Classics | .20 (9,620) | 50% | 21 | 0.21 |
Mommy | Seville | .19 (2,570) | -13% | 75 | 2.3 |
Oka Laila Kosam | Blue Sky | .19 (3,070) | 61 | 0.19 | |
The Good Lie | WB | .17 (1,230) | -69% | 135 | 2.1 |
Breakup Buddies | China Lion | 91,400 (3,810) | -53% | 24 | 0.7 |
The Two Faces of January | Magnolia | 63,300 (1,320) | -27% | 48 | 0.32 |
The Golden Era | China Lion | 53,100 (3,540) | 15 | 0.05 | |
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya | Gkids | 49,500 (16,500) | 3 | 0.05 | |
Rudderless | IDP | 34,700 (1,930) | 18 | 0.03 | |
Tracks | Weinstein Co. | 33,200 (920) | -48% | 36 | 0.41 |
Listen Up Philip | TriBeCa | 24,900 (12,450) | 2 | 0.02 | |
Hiroshima, Mon Amour (reissue) | Rialto | 17,800 (3,560) | 5 | 0.02 | |
Guardian Angel | Richmond Media | 11,400 (5,700) | 2 | 0.01 | |
Watchers of the Sky | Music Box | 8,500 (1,700) | 5 | 0.01 | |
My Love, My Bride | CJ | 7,550 (7,550) | 1 | 0.01 | |
Diplomacy | Zeitgeist | 6,900 (6,900) | 1 | 0.01 | |
Life Inside Out | Circus Road | 6,500 (3,250) | 2 | 0.01 | |
Felony | Gravitas | 4,200 (420) | 10 | 0.01 | |
Lakay | 4 Features | 3,660 (610) | 6 | 0.01 | |
The Hacker Wars | Vitagraph | 3,300 (3,300) | 1 | 0.01 | |
Domestic Market Share (Jan. 1 – Oct. 16, 2014) | |||||
Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Market Share | |||
20th Century Fox (17) | 1443.7 | 17.60% | |||
Buena Vista (15) | 1302.6 | 15.90% | |||
Warner Bros. (22) | 1261.1 | 15.40% | |||
Sony (21) | 1087.2 | 13.20% | |||
Universal (16) | 882.9 | 10.80% | |||
Paramount (13) | 830.6 | 10.10% | |||
Lionsgate (19) | 373.3 | 4.50% | |||
Weinstein (22) | 159.9 | 1.90% | |||
Relativity (9) | 137.9 | 1.70% | |||
Open Road (7) | 120.6 | 1.50% | |||
Fox Searchlight (8) | 103.5 | 1.30% | |||
FreeStyle (9) | 99.3 | 1.20% | |||
Focus (9) | 88.3 | 1.10% | |||
eOne/Seville (25) | 51.6 | 0.60% | |||
Other * (281) | 260.9 | 3.20% | |||
8203.4 | 100% | ||||
* none greater than 0.4% | |||||
Top Limited Releases * (Jan. 1 – Oct. 9, 2014) | |||||
Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
Boyhood | IFC/Mongrel | 23,622,687 | |||
A Most Wanted Man | Roadside/eOne | 17,185,345 | |||
Nebraska * | Par | 11,669,238 | |||
Dallas Buyers Club * | Focus/Remstar | 11,522,869 | |||
Belle | Fox Searchlight | 10,726,630 | |||
Magic in the Moonlight | Sony Classics | 10,457,171 | |||
Inside Llewyn Davis * | CBS/Mongrel | 8,107,748 | |||
Island of the Lemurs: Madagascar | WB | 7,673,312 | |||
Cantinflas | Lionsgate | 6,382,924 | |||
Cesar Chavez | Lionsgate | 5,571,497 | |||
Jerusalem | NationalGeo | 5,299,866 | |||
The Wind Rises | BV | 5,209,580 | |||
Journey to the South Pacific | Imax | 4,717,904 | |||
Snowpiercer | Weinstein | 4,561,255 | |||
Hubble 3D * | Imax | 4,441,348 | |||
The Railway Man | Weinstein | 4,438,438 | |||
The Skeleton Twins | Roadside | 4,427,667 | |||
The Lunchbox | Sony Classics | 4,231,500 | |||
Meet the Mormons | Purdie | 3,952,235 | |||
Fading Gigolo | Millennium | 3,769,873 | |||
* does not include 2013 box office |
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