Don’t expect next weekend to be as welcoming to the board game adaptation Ouija as it was this weekend as the PG-13 thriller scored an estimated $20 million to go along with only a “C” CinemaScore. Yikes. Horror films are pretty much always front-loaded, but when they come with a CinemaScore like that you better believe we’re looking at something around at least a 60% drop next weekend, if not more.
In second is the Keanu Reeves ex-hitman actioner John Wick, rousing $14.1 million to go with a “B” CinemaScore, which is less than I would have hoped for from the opening night audience. I never saw tracking on the film, but apparently it was down at $8 million, which means that number has been shattered, though I don’t think there were many that thought that was a realistic number to begin with. Reviews were solid, marketing was solid and there seemed to be a decent amount of buzz surrounding the film. I just wish more people had seen it.
Last weekend’s #1, the Brad Pitt, World War II tank thriller Fury, dropped 45.2% for a $13 million second weekend, just ahead of the $11.1 million earned by Gone Girl in its fourth weekend as it continues to hold on, dropping only 36.6% with a domestic cume now over $124 million.
Adding 2,214 theaters, the Bill Murray-starrer St. Vincent scored $8 million from 2,282 theaters to go along with an “A-” CinemaScore. I’ve seen a lot of people be down on this one, but I quite enjoyed it and that 76% RT rating tells me I’m not alone.
The big expansion of the weekend was Birdman opening on 46 additional screens, showing on a grand total of 50 at the moment where it scored $1.4 million for a $28,000 per theater average, bringing its cume to $2.1 million in very limited release.
In limited release, Lynn Shelton‘s Laggies stumbled a bit out of the gate to $78,000 from five theaters, while Radius’ Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour managed a $25,000 per theater average, bringing in $125,000 from five theaters. This very well could be your Best Documentary winner at this year’s Oscars folks.
Next weekend is light on new content with Jake Gyllenhaal‘s Nightcrawler, which is really the only game in town and I’ll be curious to see how audiences respond as it hits 2,800 theaters. However, Saw is coming back for its tenth anniversary in 1,850 theaters, which could make for interesting predictions, while the Nicole Kidman thriller Before I Go To Sleep is hitting somewhere around 1,700 theaters.
