By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
Halloween said si to Ouija as the spooky yarn edged out newcomer Nightcrawler for top spot at the box office. Respective estimates were $10.9 million and $10.7 million. The session’s other wide release, chiller Before I Go to Sleep, grossed a disappointing $1.9 million.
Holiday-timed retreads of Saw and The Nightmare Before Christmas also failed. In the niches, Horns failed to spike with a $107,000 tally at 96 venues.
In Canada, Cannes-prized Maps to the Stars was off the chart with $78,500 at 49 locations and Ceci n’est pas un polar eked out $18,300 from 17 screens. Incoming exclusives failed to register save for two-screen preem of Jean-Luc Godard’s 3D puzzler Goodbye to Language, at $25,200.
While hardly the Super Bowl, Halloween night traditionally takes a bite out of moviegoing and it’s particularly noticeable when the holiday falls on a weekend. Session grosses that were shy of $100 million attest to the fact and translated into an 18% decline from the prior weekend. It was a steeper 24% drop from 2013 when the bow of Ender’s Game led with a $27 million launch.
Pundits were unanimous in pegging Nightcrawler, the creepy tale of a freelance tabloid purveyor of shmutz, as the weekend champ with estimates of $13 million to $15 million. Generally positive reviews appeared to bolster its prospects but its potential audience appeared to prefer viewing sleaze at home and without undue editorial commentary.
The weekend slump puts a crimp in recent post-Labor Day holiday momentum with the year to date lagging behind 2013 by 3.5%.
As with Christmas distributors are hoping to widen the Thanksgiving holiday period with highly anticipated releases of Interstellar and Big Hero 6 next week. That gives those pictures a two week lead on The Hunger Games finale that many are already anticipating as the biggest box-office grosser of the year.
| Weekend (estimates) October 31 – November 2, 2014 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
| Ouija | Uni | 10.9 (3,750) | -45% | 2899 | 34.9 |
| Nightcrawler | Open Road | 10.7 (3,880) | NEW | 2766 | 10.7 |
| Fury | Sony | 9.1 (2,740) | -32% | 3313 | 60.4 |
| Gone Girl | Fox | 8.6 (3,030) | -22% | 2834 | 136.4 |
| The Book of Life | Fox | 8.2 (2,940) | -18% | 2794 | 40.4 |
| John Wick | Lionsgate | 8.0 (3,080) | -45% | 2589 | 27.5 |
| St. Vincent | Weinstein | 7.6 (2,970) | -2% | 2552 | 19.3 |
| Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible … Day | BV | 6.7 (2,320) | -7% | 2896 | 53.9 |
| The Judge | WB | 3.4 (1,770) | -21% | 1942 | 39.6 |
| Dracula Untold | Uni | 2.9 (1,530) | -33% | 1913 | 52.8 |
| The Best of Me | Relativity | 2.6 (1,130) | -43% | 2327 | 21.8 |
| Birdman | Fox Searchlight | 2.4 (10,560) | 77% | 231 | 4.9 |
| The Maze Runner | Fox | 2.2 (1,350) | -7% | 1620 | 96.9 |
| Annabelle | WB | 2.0 (1,160) | -39% | 1755 | 82.5 |
| Before I Go to Sleep | FreeStyle | 1.9 (990) | NEW | 1935 | 1.9 |
| The Equalizer | Sony | 1.8 (1,650) | -34% | 1108 | 96.5 |
| The Boxtrolls | Focus | .74 (910) | -21% | 812 | 48.6 |
| Dear White People | Roadside | .71 (1,850) | -43% | 384 | 2.8 |
| Addicted | Lionsgate | .66 (1,1190) | -56% | 555 | 16.4 |
| Saw 10th Anniversary (reissue) | Lionsgate | .64 (310) | NEW | 2063 | 0.64 |
| Happy New Year | Yash Raj | .62 (2,570) | -69% | 241 | 3.1 |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | BV | .53 (1,590) | -4% | 334 | 329.4 |
| Whiplash | Sony Classics | .25 (4,110) | 1% | 61 | 1.1 |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Par | .19 (730) | -49% | 265 | 190.4 |
| Citizenfour | Weinstein Co, | .19 (5,080) | 49% | 37 | 0.37 |
| This is Where I Leave You | WB | .18 (700) | -5% | 261 | 33.9 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $92.90 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | -24% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -18% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Horns | Weinstein Co. | .11 (1,110) | 96 | 0.11 | |
| Pride | CBS/Remstar | .10 (1,050) | -35% | 93 | 1.3 |
| Mommy | Seville | 92,600 (2,100) | -23% | 44 | 2.7 |
| My Old Lady | Cohen/D-Film | .10 (1,220) | -24% | 84 | 3.6 |
| Force Majeure | Magnolia | 88,700 (3,690) | 280% | 24 | 0.12 |
| The Trial | ABS | 86,400 (2,700) | -61% | 32 | 0.46 |
| Maps to the Stars | eOne | 78,500 (1,600) | 49 | 0.08 | |
| The Tale of the Princess Kaguya | Gkids | 70,800 (2,620) | 9% | 27 | 0.24 |
| Laggies | A24 | 65,300 (4,080) | -15% | 16 | 0.16 |
| Current Theega | 24 Frames | 40,800 (1,050) | 39 | 0.04 | |
| Blood Ransom | Tectonic | 27,500 (1,200) | 23 | 0.03 | |
| Goodbye to Language | Kino | 25,200 (12,600) | 2 | 0.03 | |
| Super Nani | Eros | 22,700 (530) | 43 | 0.02 | |
| Ceci n’est pas un polar | K-Films | 18,300 (1,080) | 17 | 0.02 | |
| Point and Shoot | Orchard | 6,600 (6,600) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| ABCs of Death 2 | Magnolia | 4,100 (290) | 14 | 0.01 | |
| Showrunners | Submarine | 2,750 (2,750) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (Jan. 1 – Oct. 30, 2014) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Market Share | |||
| 20th Century Fox (17) | 1523.3 | 17.90% | |||
| Buena Vista (15) | 1325.6 | 15.50% | |||
| Warner Bros. (22) | 1295.1 | 15.20% | |||
| Sony (21) | 1149.3 | 13.50% | |||
| Universal (17) | 926.6 | 10.90% | |||
| Paramount (13) | 832.4 | 9.80% | |||
| Lionsgate (20) | 399.3 | 4.70% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (24) | 171.7 | 2.00% | |||
| Relativity (9) | 156.7 | 1.80% | |||
| Open Road (8) | 121.1 | 1.40% | |||
| Fox Searchlight (9) | 106.1 | 1.20% | |||
| FreeStyle (9) | 100.8 | 1.20% | |||
| Focus (10) | 93.7 | 1.10% | |||
| eOne/Seville (27) | 52.5 | 0.60% | |||
| Other * (300) | 274.8 | 3.20% | |||
| 8529 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.4% | |||||
Any word on Kaththi’s second week?