This week two indie-budgeted thrillers without a single big name between them taught Hollywood a lesson it won’t soon forget. Ouija, the weekend’s highest grossing domestic film, turned a $5 million budget and a bit of nostalgia for the board game of its namesake into a minor economic miracle, quadrupling its original investment to earn $20 million in North America in its opening run. Meanwhile Annabelle, a $6.5 million film about an angry doll that had already kept pace with Gone Girl in it first two weeks, became the number one movie abroad for this frame. Universal who licensed the film rights to Hasbro’s occult board game had originally intended to build a $100 million epic around the toy. In the wake of Battleship’s spectacular failure, the studio opted to pass the property on to low budget horror maestro Jason Blum. True to his reputation, Blum pulled a gem out of thin air. Stiles White, a veteran special effects man, was signed on as director, and paired with a cast that features relatively unknown television actors and a former Miss Teen USA. Strangely enough, this pairing paid dividends and Ouija is now the top film of this pre-Halloween weekend. Also rather odd was the 60% female composition of its audience. Next weekend will very likely see a big drop for the pic, but stranger things have happened.
Annabelle, after two weeks of hovering around the podium, has become the best selling film outside of the U.S. and Canada. New Line’s cleverly marketed spinoff of last year’s top horror film The Conjuring made an astonishing $26.5 million from 63 international markets this weekend. Much of this figure came from a superb Mexican opening. Audiences in the Latin American nation contributed $11.5 million to Annabelle’s raging weekend. This is the nation’s biggest opening of the year for a 2D film, and is more than double what The Conjuring had earned there in its four-day opening. Brazil, where the picture has now earned $11.5 million, was good for another 2.5 this weekend. In Argentina made a $1.2 million debut and finished ahead of local phenomenon Relatos Salvajes, which had been sitting on the top spot for months, and in Peru it made $1.3 million and had the biggest ever opening for a horror film. Just behind it on the international chart was another film that refuses to heed the hand of time. Lucy, which was released at the end of July, finally dropped in China where it took $19 million, the lion’s share of its $19.6 million international rake. With a $434 million worldwide cumulative Lucy is director Luc Besson’s biggest film yet by a wide margin. Gone Girl held fast, coming in third with $18.5 million from 60 territories. $3.8 million came from a first place debut in South Korea and had notable finishes of $1.9 million in Australia and France as well as a $1.25 million performance in Germany. The Maze Runner continued to ride its continental resurgence. It made a remarkable $5.3 million in France where it finished first and $1.6 million and $1.4 million on the UK and Germany.
The second line on the North American chart bears the name of John Wick. This martial arts adventure stars Keanu Reeves and was directed by his The Matrix stunt coordinators David Leitch and Chad Stahelski. Reeves’ bloody quest for revenge earned $14.1 million and new credibility for the action veteran as a leading man. Fury dropped 45% in its return leg. It took $13 million, and ended in third place.
St. Vincent rode its collection of positive reviews to a $8 million national expansion, as the Weinstein Company production expanded into 2,282 theatres. Also notable was the success of Edward Snowden documentary Citizen Four. It earned $125,172 from five locations for an average of $25,034. This is the biggest opening for a documentary since 2010’s Waiting for Superman.
Next weekend we will see the release of Jake Gyllenhaal pic Night Crawler, as well as Before I go to Sleep, starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth.
Lorenzo Soria