It’s hardly the ideal date movie but David Fincher’s lacerating portrait of a marriage gone sour drove ticket sales at Australian cinemas last weekend.
Starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike and based on Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel, Gone Girl grabbed $4.7 million from Thursday to Sunday according to Rentrak’s estimates and $5 million with previews.
Pro-rata, that’s more potent than the US 3-day bow of $US37.5 million, where the Fox film had to fight off a strong challenge from fellow debutante Annabelle.
The horror movie produced by James Wan, who directed the 2013 hit The Conjuring, fetched $US37.1 million in the US, an unusually big opening for the genre, and a solid $1.9 million in Australia.
Here The Maze Runner continued to run hard, taking nearly $2 million in its third weekend (off 34%), propelling its takings to $12.8 million.
Despite mostly withering reviews, Dracula Untold, the origin story of the man who became Dracula, starring Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon and Dominic Cooper, rang up a respectable $1.97 million in its debut.
The combination of the newcomers plus the school vacation boosted the weekend takings by 37% to nearly $18 million. The competition overwhelmed The Equalizer, which plunged by 48% to $1.2 million, scoring $4.5 million in 11 days.
Josh Lawson’s The Little Death fetched $49,000 in its second weekend, down 37%, collecting $176,000 thus far.
Two Bollywood films opened with varying degrees of success. Bang Bang, Siddharth Anand’s faithful remake of Knight And Day, which substitutes Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif for Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, punched up a fine $256,000 on 24 screens.
Vishal Bharadwaj's Haider, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet starring Shahid Kapoor, Tabu, Irrfan Khan, Kaya Kay Menon and Kulbhushan Kharbanda, took a rather less impressive $68,000 on 15.
Breakup Buddies, a Chinese comedy which reunites Lost in Thailand stars Xu Zheng and Huang Bo in the story of a recently divorced man who goes on vacation with his best friend, rustled up a merry $114,000 on 10 screens.
Billy Elliot the Musical Live whistled up a fair $210,000 from 120 locations on Sunday while two new limited releases were duds. Advanced Style, a documentary about seven New York women, aged from 62 to 95, who challenge conventional ideas about beauty and aging, collared $26,000 on 14 screens.
Even worse, Obvious Child, a dramedy about a 27-year-old Brooklyn comedian who gets dumped by her two-timing boyfriend and on the rebound gets pregnant, made $1,200 on three screens and $3,700 with sneaks.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE October 2-5
|
|
Title |
Week/ Screens |
Box Office |
% +- |
Total
|
|
1 |
Gone Girl |
1/401 |
$4,696,764 |
NA |
$5,003,881 |
|
2 |
The Maze Runner |
3/313 |
1,993,601 |
-34 |
12,819,929 |
|
3 |
Dracula Untold |
1/221 |
1,971,293 |
NA |
1,971,293 |
|
4 |
Annabelle |
1/166 |
1,904,995 |
NA |
1,904,995 |
|
5 |
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles |
4/314 |
1,318,725 |
-34 |
16,317,976 |
|
6 |
The Boxtrolls |
3/277 |
1,197,837 |
-7 |
5,436,760 |
|
7 |
The Equalizer |
2/303 |
1,188,678 |
-48 |
4,537,310 |
|
8 |
Planes: Fire and Rescue |
3/276 |
852,358 |
-14 |
4,466,083 |
|
9 |
The House of Magic |
3/214 |
659,367 |
+14 |
2,483,498 |
|
10 |
Guardians of the Galaxy |
9/83 |
301,200 |
-31 |
26,308,103 |
Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia