Box Office: Doctor Strange, A Man Called Ove, and More...

What did you see this weekend?

The bulk of the moviegoing nation went to either Doctor Strange (reviewed) or Trolls as expected. Doctor Strange's nearly 85 million is a major success for Marvel Studios, though weaker than the Guardians of the Galaxy launch it was quite a lot stronger than the Ant-Man launch. It's already earned over $325 million globally. When is Marvel going to have their first flop? It seems a long way off, doesn't it? 

The top 10 wide and limited charts and notes on other pictures after the jump... 

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Box Office: Moonlight Fever

What did you see this weekend?

For the box office charts this week, let's focus in on the platform releases out there since the mainstream offerings were uninspiring. Moonlight had a miraculous opening selling out its shows all weekend long at 4 locations on the coasts. That resulted in one of the strongest per screen averages of the entire year.

The top 20 films in limited release are after the jump... 

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Box Office: The Accountant and Certain Women

Though awards season has started outside of movie theaters it definitely hasn't started within them (a flaw of the system as we continuously bemoan) and The Birth of a Nation took another campaign hit this weekend dropping a rough 61% in its second weekend while its competition last weekend dimmed by only 38 to 50% in round two. This week was a battle between two films from reliably bankable stars without awards gold on their mind -- Kevin Hart's Kevin Hart: What Now? and Ben Affleck in the thriller The Accountant. The latter surprised by slightly outperforming the successful opening weekends of both Argo and The Town despite having nothing like their enthusiastic reviews. 

TOP TEN WIDE
01 The Accountant $24.7 NEW 
02 Kevin Hart: What Now? $11.9 NEW
03 The Girl on the Train $11.9 (cum. $46.5) Review
04 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children $8.9 (cum. $65.8)
05 Deepwater Horizon $6.3 (cum. $49.3) 
06 Storks $5.6 (cum. $59.1)
07 The Magnificent Seven $5.2 (cum. $84.8) Review
08 Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life $4.2 (cum. $13.7)
09 Sully $2.7 (cum. $118.3) Review
10 Birth of a Nation $2.7 (cum. $12.2) More

TOP TEN LIMITED
01 Priceless $703K NEW 
02 Desierto $450K NEW Mexico's Oscar Submission
03 Denial $398K (cum. $839K) Review
04 A Man Called Ove $205K (cum. $436K) Sweden's Oscar Submission
05 The Dressmaker $171K (cum. $1.3) 
06 American Honey $142K (cum. $362K) Review
07 The Beatles: Eight Days a Week $123K (cum. $2.5) Review
08 No Manches Frida $110K (cum. $11.3)
09 M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story $80K (cum. $1.7)
10 Certain Women $65K NEW Review

In limited release Certain Women, just off of its NYFF festival bow, posted the strongest per screen average (albeit only on 5 screens) with the animated feature Miss Hokusai (part of a very competitive Best Animated Feature race this year) not far behind on just two screens.

What did you see this weekend?

The Girl in the Box Office, Best Seller Nation

Best seller adaptations don't always equal big opening weekends (see Light Between Oceans) but The Girl on the Train was one of the lucky ones opening strong despite middling reviews. Was Emily Blunt the top draw or the book itself? Perhaps it was just excellent timing with few adult thrillers in the marketplace, most of the Oscar contenders waiting for November and December launches, and The Birth of a Nation struggling with a weak launch that's making Fox Searchlight's $17 million Sundance bet look like a losing hand.

What'cha think? And what did you see this weekend? 

TOP TEN WIDE
01 The Girl on the Train $24.6 NEW Review
02 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children $15 (cum. $51)
03 Deepwater Horizon $11.7 (cum. $38.5) 
04 The Magnficent Seven $9.1 (cum. $75.9) Review
05 Storks $8.4 (cum. $50.1) 
06 The Birth of a Nation $7.1 NEW More
07 Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life $6.9 NEW
08 Sully $5.2 (cum. $113.4)  Review
09 Masterminds $4.1 (cum. $12.7)
10 Queen of Katwe $1.6 (cum. $5.3) Review

Mr Burton's Box Office For CGI Whimsy

If you were a peculiar orphan with supernatural powers could you imagine anyone more perfect than Eva Green to be your guardian? Tim Burton may not be the director he used to be in quality or bankablity but he was smart to latch on to Eva Green as his latest pale skinned raven haired muse. She ran so many circles around everything else that was happening in Dark Shadows (2012) it's a miracle that it was her character and not the film that cracked apart and crumbled. Her reviews are strong again for this new fantasy film.

TOP TEN WIDE
01 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children $28.5 NEW 
02 Deepwater Horizon $20.6 NEW 
03 The Magnificent Seven $15.7 (cum. $61.6)  Review
04 Storks $13.8 (cum. $38.8) 
05 Sully $8.4 (cum. $105.3) Review
06 Masterminds $6.6 NEW
07 Queen of Katwe $2.6 (cum. $3) Review
08 Don't Breathe $2.3 (cum. $84.7)
09 Bridget Jones's Baby $2.3 (cum. $20.9)  Review
10 Snowden $2 (cum $18.7) 

TOP TEN LIMITED
(Excluding Previously Wide)
01 M.S. Dhoni The Untold Story $1.2 NEW
02 No Manches Frida $380K (cum. $10.9)
03 The Dressmaker $357K (cum. $622K) 
04 The Beatles: Eight Days a Week $355K (cum. $2)
05 I Belonged To You $325K NEW
06 Denial $102K NEW
07 Don't Think Twice $99K (cum. $4.1) Review
08 The Hollars $98K (cum. $910K)
09 American Honey $75K NEW 
10 A Man Called Ove $61K NEW Sweden's Oscar Submission

In limited release it's clear by now that niche distributors need to study whatever it is companies like FIP and China Lion are doing because they keep managing strong opening weekend grosses for Bollywood films and Chinese films without so much as a sliver of traditional US media promotion.

What did you see this weekend?

I got a cold (boo) so I missed a screening or two (no one needs someone sneezing through a whole movie while they're watching it) but did manage to catch up with the Molly Shannon cancer dramedy Other People (and the review and interview right here) which were all quite enjoyable.