Weekend Wrap-Up: Ouija and Nightcrawler Lead Soft Halloween
November 3, 2014
Halloween is over and the box office took a real hit. Ouija was the only film that was a pleasant surprise topping expectations and earning first place. Nightcrawler matched expectations, but due to the competition, landed in second place. The other two films of note: Before I Go to Sleep and Saw, were... well, the less said the better. Overall, the box office fell 18% to just $95 million. Worse still, this was 25% lower than the same weekend last year. There is mitigating circumstances, as this weekend last year was the first weekend of November and didn't have to suffer with Halloween landing on the Friday. Next weekend will bounce back, obviously, but 2014 is running out of time to catch up to 2013. Currently it is down by 3.3% at $8.33 billion to $8.62 billion.
Ouija remained in first place over the weekend with $10.74 million over the weekend for a total of $34.80 million after two. The film has made enough to cover its entire production budget and a sizable chunk of its P&A budget. Assuming the film can get close to $50 million domestically and assuming it can find at least relatively similar audience internationally, then the film will break even before it hits the home market. Even if it doesn't earn another penny, it will break even sooner rather than later.
Nightcrawler opened in second place with $10.44 million, which matched predictions perfectly. Its reviews are excellent, but there are many, many monster hits coming out in November, so it is about to be crushed by the competition.
Fury was a little better than expected earning third place with $8.82 million over the weekend, for a total of $60.16 million over three weeks of release. The competition from the new releases this weekend will likely cause it to lose a significant chunk of its theater count and its will likely disappear from theaters quite quickly after that.
Gone Girl was right behind with $8.48 million over the weekend for a total of $136.28 million after a month of release. Normally, I would say it is on pace to reach $150 million, but that could change once I see the film's theater count for this weekend.
The Book of Life rounded out the top five with $8.21 million over the weekend for a three-week total of $40.43 million. Now that Halloween is over, it will likely crash and won't match earlier expectations.
John Wick fell out of the top five, despite matching predictions with $7.99 million over the weekend. After ten days of release, the film has pulled in $27.53 million, which is better than most people thought it would end with, but still not enough to be considered even a midlevel hit.
Before I Go to Sleep missed the top ten with just $1.84 million in 1,935 theaters. Granted, its reviews weren't great, but they were certainly better than its box office performance was. This is also the third bomb in a row for Clarius Entertainment and at this point, I'm a little concerned about how long they can last without a hit.
One last note, the 10th Anniversary re-release of Saw was a disaster. It opened in 20th place with just $650,000 in 2,063 theaters for a Per Theater Average of $315. To put this into perspective, Guardians of the Galaxy was right behind with $564,000 in 334 theaters over the weekend for an average of $1,688. It has been in theaters for more than three months, but still managed a better average than Saw's re-release.
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Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Saw, Ouija, The Book of Life, Fury, Before I Go to Sleep, Gone Girl, Nightcrawler, John Wick