David Fincher’s Gone Girl stuck around to claim its second consecutive top finish in this weekend box office race. The David Fincher helmed picture fended off a handful of promising new releases, ending its encore run with a $26.8 million North American take and with a worldwide total of over $140 million. Second place went to competitor Dracula Untold, as the winning drama sucked the life out of fellow debutant The Judge. Much to producer Robert Downey Jr.’s dismay, a good portion of this legal drama’s potential audience opted to make their verdict on a different film after being tantalized by Girl’s nearly ubiquitous critical and popular acclaim. Word of mouth has been a driving force behind Gone Girl’s steady repeat showing, keeping the film hovering just 29% below its debut figures. With a domestic total of over $78 million, at this point it is well placed to surpass Fincher’s Golden Globe and Oscar nominee The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’s $127 million domestic tally and become the director’s most successful film to date. Its return effort on the overseas circuit was even more impressive. Fourteen new openings including France ($3.59 million) and Spain ($1.56) helped Girl to a $27 million foreign cumulative, good for a tie with Annabelle in third place. This is $3.5 million more than it managed in its initial outing last frame.
Despite swooping into an early lead with an $8.9 million Friday, Dracula Untold’s fangs couldn’t quite latch on to America’s jugular. This latest filmed interpretation of Bram Stoker’s seminal gothic novel, from fellow Irishman and first-time feature director Gary Shore, depicts the rise of a monster. Its 92 minutes relate the transformation of Vlad III Prince of Wallachia into the infamous fiend Dracula. After a solid showing in several key European markets last weekend, the picture earned a $24.5 million domestic opening to finish as the top new release and second overall. With its gory focus on blood and steel this film played to an audience that was unsurprisingly 57% male. Like its rival Gone Girl, Dracula fared better overseas than in its home market. It pulled in $33.9 million from 43 territories, beating its haul from last weekend’s not-so-limited debut by more than 54%. Its combined total for this frame is $57.3 million, putting it in first place ahead of Gone Girl’s $54.8 million sophomore jaunt. A good chunk of this winning figure was due to a fantastic Russian debut. Untold enjoyed a $9.8 million opening in the predominantly Slavic nation that is well versed in the lore of Vlad the Impaler and likely appreciated the film’s adherence to many traditional tenets of the Eastern European myth. It kept the top spot in Mexico for the second week in a row, taking $3.4 million from Central America’s largest film market. Second place on the international chart belonged to Guardians of the Galaxy, which made a resounding $26.6 million in its Chinese opening. This is the biggest October introduction in the country’s history, and the third biggest overall for Disney. Tied with Gone Girl for third place is Annabelle, a movie that is very quickly becoming one of the best selling horror films of all time. The $6.5 million New Line acquisition added a staggering $43.3 million from 45 markets in its second weekend in theatres. Of these millions 16.3 million came from the U.S. and Canada, where it finished fourth, while the remaining 27 were gathered abroad. The Maze Runner added another $13.7 million from its 63 foreign territories to finish fourth, while fifth place belonged to Denzel Washington and The Equalizer, which made $11.5 million.
Back in North America, newcomer Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day had an ok weekend. The Disney release took advantage of the lack of kid and family friendly pictures on the market to make $19.1 million in its first frame. There was, however, little to celebrate for Robert Downey Jr. and his newly minted production company Team Downey. Their inaugural foray The Judge earned just $13.3 million from a full-scale 3,003-location release. The $50 million picture, starring its celebrity producer as well as Robert Duval and Vera Farmiga, suffered from a combination of mixed reviews and the fact that it had to compete with Gone Girl for its target demographic of filmgoers over 30.
Next frame we’ll watch how Brad Pitt’s WWII drama Fury, Fox Animation’s The Book of Life, and Relativity’s The Best of Me, adapted from a book by female-friendly author Nicholas Sparks, stack up against the current batch of top releases.
Lorenzo Soria