Box Office: Gone Girl Keeps Her Money

Amir here, returning to box office duty. I had to discard my long, passionate obituary for every cinephile’s favorite math-themed website, Box Office Mojo, because thankfully it’s back on air. The scare is (seemingly) over. We can all feast our eyes again on that old-school, colourless, eyesore of a design we know and love. 

TOP TEN WIDE
01 GONE GIRL $26.8 (cum. $78.2) Jason's Review
02 DRACULA UNTOLD $23.4  NEW
03 ALEXANDER AND THE ... DAY $19.1 NEW
04 ANNABELLE $16.3 (cum. $62.1)
05 THE JUDGE $13.3  NEW
06 THE EQUALIZER $9.7 (cum. $79.8) 
07 ADDICTED $7.6  NEW
08 THE MAZE RUNNER $7.5 (cum. $83.8) Review
09 THE BOXTROLLS $6.6 (cum. $41) In praise of Laika
10 LEFT BEHIND $2.9 (cum. $10.9)  

Gone Girl kept her cool and slit Dracula’s throat to stay at number one. Dracula Untold – ugh, that title – was one of four new wide releases that failed to overcome Fincher’s film. There was also the children’s film Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and the much maligned TIFF opening film, The Judge, starring Robert Downey Jr. sans the lucrative iron man suit. If those titles sound unappealing, wait till you get a hold of Meet the Mormons, yet another Christian film entering the top ten, making this a truly exemplary year for the little genre. This one is a documentary financed by the church of LDS, so you know it’s going to be even-headed and nuanced.

Still, all isn’t lost. You’re not alone in thinking this year’s highbrow film season is off to an unusually slow start, but there are good things to see out there, as Nathaniel highlighted the other day. Pride, Whiplash, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, and if you’re a Canadian reader, Mommy, are all playing and doing relatively strong business on few screens. Entertain yourselves with those, or Bill Murray’s St. Vincent (with the weekend's highest per screen average), or this wonderful little documentary called The Overnighters.

Anyway, I’ve mostly been busy with screeners for next week’s films with hit or miss results. What did you watch this weekend?

Link On

click to embiggenBacklots on "the happiest marriage in Hollywood" William Haines and Jimmy Shields from the golden age
Coming Soon first image & poster from Dracula Untold starring Luke Evans which opens in October. (I always giggle when "untold" is used in titles or taglines for characters that every man woman and child has heard of.
Buzzfeed great article on Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook, and melodrama
VF Hollywood Mary Steenburgen on joining Orange is the New Black for Season 3 (I think she removed this tweet because I can't find it) 
Jezebel is the Justice League movie really only going to have one female character?
The Film Stage That's "Sir" Daniel Day-Lewis to you 
Guardian interesting read on how social media killed the official websites for new movies 
Coming Soon Frank Grillo optimistic about returning in Captain America 3 despite being kind of burned alive in Winter Soldier
Variety Adrien Brody and John Cusack joining Jackie Chan in Dragon Blade, one of the most expensive Chinese movies ever. They do know those two Americans aren't box office draws, right? 

Captain vs. Legos
You know how I was all excited about Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which I love and saw again this weekend on a whim) becoming the #1 of the year last week? Well, it's already been replaced as The Lego Movie reclaimed the title the same weekend it debuted on DVD. Only $4,000 separate their grosses - ha! That's what you call a photo finish. The good captain isn't on DVD until September but he's also only in about 200 theaters and could easily lose the rest of them next weekend. Not that any of this matters since Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt 1 and Grace of Mona-(kidding!) have yet to arrive and will easily surpass them.

What is Valka's purpose in How To Train Your Dragon 2?

Today's Must Read
Tasha Robinson at The Dissolve on "Losing Strong Female Characters to the Trinity Syndrome". Why is it that even when filmmakers care enough to craft and introduce a fascinating female hero, they always abandon, undermine or reduce her by the third act? Two current examples are dissected: Valka (Cate Blanchett) in How To Train Your Dragon 2 who gets the whole second act (but for what purpose?) and Rita (Emily Blunt) in Edge of Tomorrow

Two "Dracula" Actresses

The Los Angeles Times reports that one of the last remaining silent era actors has passed away. The actress in question, Carla Laemmle, had an easy in to the movies: her uncle Carl Laemmle founded Universal Studios and invited her family to live in a bungalow on the lot.  Carla only had a small part in the horror classic Dracula (1931) but a key one: she uttered the first line of dialogue. She didn't appear in many pictures in her long life, dying at 104 years of age, but she apparently just recently filmed a role in a new horror film Mansion of Blood (2014) starring Gary Busey.

In happier news - this is not a double RIP -  Lupita Tovar, a Mexican beauty who starred in the Spanish language version of Dracula that same year (in those early days of sound they made simultaneous alternative versions for other markets with the same sets and costumes) is still with us at 103 years of age. Lupita also comes from a movie family or, rather, began one. She is the mother of Oscar nominee Susan Kohner (Imitation of Life) and grandmother to the directors Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz (of About a Boy fame)

Related: Oldest Living Screen Stars of Note