Box Office Dies. Nightcrawler Shoots It.
Sunday, November 2, 2014 at 3:50PM Amir here, reporting to box office duty. It was a dead weekend at the multiplex, deader than the dead in Ouija, deader than zombies. Though it was not, strictly speaking, the worst weekend of the year – that honor belongs to the weekend of September 5th, when Guardians of the Galaxy, in its sixth week, topped the chart and the biggest new release was The Identical, a musical with Ray Liotta and Ashley Judd!!! – it was still a terrible weekend.
TOP DOZEN
01 NIGHTCRAWLER $10.9 NEW
02 OUIJA $10.9 (cum. $34.9)
03 FURY $9.1 (cum. $60.4) Michael's Review
04 GONE GIRL $8.8 (cum. $136.6) Jason's Review
05 THE BOOK OF LIFE $8.3 (cum. $40.5) Interview
06 JOHN WICK $8 (cum. $27.5) Michael's Review
07 ST. VINCENT $7.7 (cum. $19.5) Michael's Review
08 ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE... $6.4 (cum. $53.6)
09 THE JUDGE $3.4 (cum. $39.5)
10 DRACULA UNTOLD $2.9 (cum. $52.8)
11 THE BEST OF ME $2.7 (cum. $21.9)
12 BIRDMAN $2.5 (cum. $5) Nathaniel's Review
Nightcrawler, the critically acclaimed crime film starring Jake Gyllenhaal, opened at the top spot, but at the estimated $10.9m, it’s the lowest grossing new release to top its weekend in this entire decade so far. By all accounts, the film deserves a bigger audience, but the number isn’t exactly a surprise because a) Halloween weekend is never a great time for non-horror films and b) Gyllenhaal hasn’t really opened a film big on his own. The other new wide release Before I Go To Sleep with Nicole Kidman finished outside the top ten with 2 million. Birdman, still platforming at 231 screens now but almost cracking the top ten, maintained the best screen average for the third weekend in a row. It will surpass Iñarittu's own Biutiful and Amores Perros in total sales sometime today.
UP NEXT: November will bring us some of the year’s biggest box office hopefuls. Here are each week’s major openings for the remainder of the month: Interstaller and Big Hero 6 (7) ; Dumb and Dumber To (14); Hunger Games: Mockingjay (21) a sure bet to take Guardians of the Galaxy’s #1 of year throne; Penguins of Madagascar and Horrible Bosses 2 (26) -- oh, c’mon you know you’re waiting for this one! More exciting times are ahead.
What did you watch this weekend?
Reader Comments (19)
I Redboxed "Obvious Child" and man, I didn't think Jenny Slate had it in her. Great performance, really great. Crossing my fingers for a GG Comedy nomination.
Amir,
I know it's a typo but I can't help but love your spelling of Interstellar. INTERSTALLER may be accurate (next week we'll see but it already looks like too much running time for nothing of substance).
;)
Serena opened here in Barcelona this weekend and I consciously skipped it. It gives me a very strong Grace of Monaco vibe. Lately, we get the bad ones first here in Europe.
Briefly thought "Penguins of Madagascar" was a joke. They're really squeezing that one for every penny, eh?
Jay- Thanks for pointing that out! I guess I'll leave it as is now :)
I did the usual Halloween trifecta: Carrie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai de Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.
Quite psyched to see Nightcrawler this week.
Birdman - quite good, maybe better than that
The Innocents - I turned on the lights halfway through the movie. It scared me.
I saw St. Vincent and liked it, but my (older, packed matinee) audience really, really liked it. I think people may be underestimating how well it may do with the Academy.
That is a depressing list of openings for the month.
I wonder, now that it looks like Intestaller probably won't have acting noms, if that will open up a spot for Jake G? The film and its actors certainly got the notices.........
Henry: Actor almost always has too full a dance card for a character like Lou (see also: Kirk Douglas giving his absolute best performance in 1951 with a very similar character and not even landing the nod). Supporting Actress is open enough (only Stone and Arquette can claim anything even approaching security at this moment) that if it gets more of an audience in the proceeding weekends (due to Interstellar spillover), Russo could well happen as a symbolic single for the whole production.
Did a Halloween marathon that consisted of World War Z, Addams Family, Nightmare Before Christmas, and The Craft. Good times.
I only saw one movie, Ernest & Celestine, which I absolutely loved. What a lovely, hilarious, brilliant movie.
"Nightcrawler." A discomfiting film with a very creepy performance from Jake Gyllenhaal. Welcome back, Rene Russo!
Roark- I don't care how many times everyone's gonna tell me to Let It Go, I'll never get over the fact that Ernest & Celestine lost that Oscar.
Since it was Halloween I watched Eyes Without a Face. Great music but that movie gets under your skin.
Life After Beth on Halloween. Hoping for a good zombie chuckle (akin to Shaun of the Dead), but it was just o.k.
Finally caught Begin Again, which was delightful, especially the chemistry between the two leads. Never tire of Catherine Keener, even if she plays the suffering (or insufferable) wife. And James Corden is adorkable. He'll be a fine Baker.
And last week's episode of Jane the Virgin--the best show on network TV right now.
Um, tell me more about this musical with Ray Liotta and Ashley Judd?!?! Where did that come from and how did I not know about it? Who thought that was a good idea. Googling now...
Amir - keep that fire burning, man! If I'd seen it before the Oscars I would've been right there with you.
Watched "Psycho II" this past weekend since I'd never seen it. Pretty good movie, and nice to see some touches from the original (although not trying to match the style of it). Was surprised to find out the lead actress in it (Meg Tilly) was the sister of Jennifer Tilly, and that both girls have been nominated for Oscars!