There will not be a four-peat at the top of the box office as Gravity finally slips to #2 behind the second R-rated comedy to top the box office this year, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa.
Opening in 3,336 theaters this weekend, Bad Grandpa stormed out of the box office with $12.6 million on Friday and a “B” CinemaScore and finished the weekend, exceeding tracking with an estimated $32 million. Compared to previous theatrical installments in the Jackass franchise, this result is right on par with 2006’s Jackass: Number Two, though, I guess if you take inflation into consideration it’s just a shade above 2006’s Jackass: The Movie, which went on to bring in $72.7 million at the domestic box office, which sounds about right. Not too shabby for a $15 million budget.
Gravity, meanwhile, brought in another $20.3 million, bringing its cume to just shy of $200 million, making it George CLooney‘s highest grossing domestic release to date. It will need another $56 million to hold the same record for Sandra Bullock.
The weekend’s other new wide release, Ridley Scott‘s The Counselor, is a bit of a miserable failure and after seeing it this is no real surprise. Boasting an impressive cast and some decent trailers, the film flopped to the tune of $8 milion earning a “D” CinemaScore from opening day audiences, which, honestly, is higher than I would have expected. I thought for sure we’d see another case of the Killing Them Softly‘s and see an “F”. However, The Counselor doesn’t hold a candle to Killing Them Softly… my opinion of course.
Speaking of flops, remember The Fifth Estate? The film that scored the worst opening for a film in 1,500 or more theaters this year just last weekend. Well, it dropped nearly 67% for a weekend total of only $562,000, which seems almost impossible.
Jumping from 19 theaters to 123, 12 Years a Slave scored an impressive $2.1 million for a $17,480 per theater average. The Oscar hopeful, and presumed favorite in many corners, will go wide next weekend and it will be interesting to see just how many are up for taking the ride. I know one person that thinks you should see it…
If you don't see 12 years a slave. Then you don't deserve eyes. Incredible.
— Chris Rock (@chrisrock) October 25, 2013
Opening in limited release is the much-talked-about Blue is the Warmest Color, entering four theaters with an NC-17 rating, the film scored an estimated $101,000.
Also in our competition this weekend was the Saudi Arabia Foreign Language Oscar entry, Wadjda, which added 21 theaters for a grand total of only 87, where it earned $132,000.
And that does it for October, a month that didn’t see a horror film hit #1, something that hasn’t happened for 12 years, and is clearly attributable to the success of Gravity, the failure of Carrie and the departure of Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. As for the upcoming first weekend in November, we have a lot to consider including wide releases of Ender’s Game, Free Birds and Last Vegas along with the limited release of About Time, Dallas Buyers Club and Diana. Laremy will certainly have a lot to choose from when it comes to next Thursday’s Box Office Challenge.
