WEEKEND BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN: October 10-12, 2014

GONE GIRL held onto the top spot in its second week with a $26.8 mil haul. To date the film has earned an impressive $78.2 mil against a $61 mil budget.

~Matt Reed

Sorry I’ve been away for a month. A new gig and some family things in September took precedence. Then just as I was gearing up to do some research for this breakdown, the Box Office Mojo site went down without explanation on Friday. Much consternation on the interwebs ensued and then, just as mysteriously as it disappeared, Box Office Mojo reappeared late Saturday night. Good news for diehard BO junkies like me! So without further ado, here we go!

GONE GIRL held onto the top spot in its second week with a $26.8 mil haul. To date the film has earned an impressive $78.2 mil against a $61 mil budget. Director David Fincher’s adaptation of the popular thriller has the potential to best his highest grossing film THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON which earned $127.5 mil domestic in 2008. It will most definitely best his second highest grossing film THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2011) which earned $102.5 mil domestic. As far as Ben Affleck is concerned, this is his best showing since ARGO (2012) earned $136 mil domestic and has the potential to exceed 2003’s THE SUM OF ALL FEARS which earned $118.9 mil.

Coming in second place, DRACULA UNTOLD opened with a so-so $23.4 mil. Against a $70 mil budget and with horror movies notoriously frontloaded, it’s hard to imagine it will recoup it’s money on the domestic front. No worry for Universal, however, as it’s already grossed $62.6 mil international.

ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY opened to the tune of $19.1 mil which should be considered successful for a number of different reasons. First, its production budget was only $28 mil. Second, much of its gross came from children’s tickets which obviously cost less than those for adults. Considering BOX TROLLS is the only other family friendly film in release, ALEXANDER should do OK over the next couple of weeks.

Two other films opened in wide release. THE JUDGE disappointed, coming in at #5 by earning $13.3 mil against a $50 mil budget. The last non-franchise, non-Marvel drama that RDJ starred in was THE SOLOIST in 2009. That film ultimately grossed $31.7 mil. THE JUDGE feels poised to earn between $35-40 mil. ADDICTED, the barely advertised drama by Lionsgate, opened DOA at #7 with $7.6 mil.

Short Takes: Remember I mentioned frontloaded horror films? ANNABELLE, which opened last week with an impressive $37.1 mil, dropped nearly 56% this week earning $16.3 mil. Considering it cost just $6.5 mil, it’s a big hit with a $122.4 mil worldwide total. The same can be said for both THE EQUALIZER and THE MAZE RUNNER. The former has earned $136.9 mil worldwide and the latter is a successful franchise starter with $223.6 mil worldwide.

Up Next: The romance THE BEST OF ME starring James Marsden, the war film FURY starring Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf and the animated film THE BOOK OF LIFE featuring the voices of Zoe Saldana, Channing Tatum, Christina Applegate, Ron Perlman and Danny Trejo among others.

Here, as always, are the weekend domestic estimates courtesy of our friends at boxofficemojo.com: