We knew it might be close and boy is it ever as Gone Girl has taken in an estimated $38 million at the weekend box office to just barely edge out the horror prequel Annabelle at $37.2 million. With only $800,000 separating the two this could still end up in Annabelle‘s favor once actuals come in on Monday afternoon, but I have a feeling it will still be Gone Girl on top.
Gone Girl, however, only scored a “B” CinemaScore, which has me wondering how it will holdover next weekend. For David Fincher, though, this is his largest opening ever, ahead of Panic Room‘s $30 million back in 2002. It’s the third highest opening for Ben Affleck behind Pearl Harbor ($59m) and Daredevil ($40.3m), which I think is saying something considering how those are pretty much event films and Gone Girl is an R-rated adult feature.
On top of that, the film played to a 60% female audience and 75% of the overall audience was above the age of 25. So, studios, how about we get more movies for that demo coming out of Hollywood?
As for Annabelle, it also received a “B” CinemaScore and can enjoy being the horror movie with the highest opening weekend for 2014, well ahead of The Purge: Anarchy‘s $29.8 million from earlier this year.
As for the weekend’s other new semi-wide release, Nicolas Cage‘s Left Behind brought in $6.8 million, which, I guess, if you consider it was only made for $16 million isn’t too bad, but I have to assume they had much higher aspirations for this one given it’s a religion-based film and those have been doing gangbusters at the box office as of late. Unfortunately, the “B-” CinemaScore suggests it might not have very long legs either.
When it comes to holdovers, The Equalizer dropped 46%, bringing in $19 million in its sophomore session, which is quite strong given it was up against two R-rated movies at the top of the charts. Additionally, Focus Features’ The BoxTrolls only dipped 28%, bringing in $12.4 million in its second weekend, bringing its cume to $32.5 million.
In limited release news, Reese Witherspoon‘s The Good Lie opened in only 461 theaters and while it did receive an A+ CinemaScore from opening day audiences it only managed $935,000 ($2,028 per theater).
Next weekend sees the release of Dracula Untold, The Judge and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day in wide release, though might I recommend if you are in a city where they are released looking out first for Whiplash and then Kill the Messenger.
