Weekend's Box office review

Universal pulled off a bit of an upset on Friday,
as Dracula Untold topped Gone Girl for box office
bragging rights. The PG-13 horror-fantasy took in
an estimated $8.9 million from 2,887 locations on
its first day in theatres, topping the entire first
weekend of January’s I, Frankenstein. Dracula
Untold was expected to earn between $15 and
$17 million on its debut weekend, but with
Friday’s win the projection is closer to $25
million. That’s good news for Universal, though
it’s unlikely to be enough to knock Gone Girl out
of first place. Last weekend’s top film earned an
estimated $8.15 million from 3,014 locations on
Friday, and should take in another $27 million this
weekend, which would make it one of the few R-
rated dramas to spend two consecutive weeks on
top of the domestic box office.
Full story and Friday’s top five after the jump.
I’ll admit I did not see Friday’s Dracula Untold
win coming. Even after Gone Girl opened in
second place behind Annabelle last Friday, I
thought Fox’s hit drama would have no trouble
maintaining its first place spot. For its part,
Annabelle was down 66% yesterday from its
victory on opening day. That’s not a bad hold for
a horror movie, especially considering the direct
competition that The Conjuring prequel faced in
the form of Dracula Untold yesterday. In fact,
Annabelle remained strong enough to top both of
this weekend’s other new releases: Alexander and
the Terrible, Awful, No Good, Very Bad Day and
The Judge.
With mixed reviews and a target demographic
shared with Gone Girl , the fate of The Judge is
not surprising. The drama starring Robert
Downey Jr. took in an estimated $4.4 million from
3,003 locations and should end its debut weekend
with about $13 million – right in line with its
modest pre-release expectations.
The movie I thought would show more muscle
this weekend was Disney’s Alexander . Based on
a popular children’s book and starring Steve
Carell , the family comedy seemed like the newbie
with the best shot at topping $20 million.
Instead, Alexander will probably earn no more
than $18 million through Sunday, based on its
Friday estimate of $5.2 million from 3,088
locations. That’s not bad, exactly – but
considering the film has a higher theatre count
than Dracula Untold and a target demographic
that has been largely overlooked since summer
(or so we keep telling you), an opening closer to
$22 million shouldn’t have been such a stretch.
We’ll have full details and the weekend top ten
tomorrow.
Title Friday Total
1. Dracula Untold $8,900,000 $59.6
2. Gone Girl $8,150,000 $8.15
3. Annabelle $5,240,000 $51
4. Alexander… $5,230,000 $5.2
5. The Judge $4,420,000 $4.4