It’s not real surprise Annabelle topped Gone Girl at the Friday box office, but it is rather surprising in just how high it went and, equally, how well Gone Girl is already performing.
Opening with $15.5 million, Annabelle is just $1.4 million behind its predecessor, The Conjuring, which kicked things off with a $16.9 million Friday before ending the weekend with $41.8 million. This means we’re looking at somewhere around a possible mid-$30 million opening for the horror and the largest opening for a horror film this year, which, so far, is The Purge: Anarchy at $29.8 million. The “B” CinemaScore also helps in this case, a solid score for a horror movie.
As for David Fincher‘s Gone Girl, I expect it to outperform Annabelle over the weekend as more adults are now home from work and with $13.2 million on Friday the weekend options are interesting. If it can pull off a three times multiplier we’re looking at a nearly $40 million opening, but it’s hard to necessarily count on that, though as Scott Mendelson at Forbes points out, Argo had a 3.3-times multiplier over its opening weekend and if Gone Girl could match that we’re looking at a $43.5 million opening.
What I begin to wonder is how much of this has to do with the book, how much to do with the reviews, how much to do with the marketing? I only ask because I would love Hollywood to see something here that suggests more R-rated, adult, deeply layered dramas are worth making. Hell, the damn thing only cost $61 million to make… make more of them!
Finally, Nicolas Cage‘s Left Behind was just that, opening with just $2.36 million, which will put it on track for something around $6 million or so.
I will be back here tomorrow morning with a complete weekend wrap-up, but if you’re interested we’re part of the conversation.
- Annabelle – $15,500,000
- Gone Girl – $13,200,000
- The Equalizer – $5,600,000
- The Maze Runner – $3,435,000
- The Boxtrolls – $2,741,000
- Left Behind – $2,360,000
- This is Where I Leave You – $1,215,000
- Guardians of the Galaxy – $802,000
- Dolphin Tale 2 – $800,000
- No Good Deed – $740,000
via Box Office Mojo
