Halloween weekend was a pretty light one at the box office, leading to a rare virtual tie at the top.
New release Nightcrawler starring Jake Gyllenhaal and defending top film Ouija each brought in about $10.9 million. Nightcrawler was certainly a tough sell. Even with overall favorable reviews from critics, it was difficult to get a sense of the story and Gyllenhaal’s erratic character was tough to market.
Ouija on the other hand managed to drop only slightly from opening weekend. The horror film was perfectly set up for a strong performance at the box office with major studios skirting the Halloween release date.
Fury rolled into third adding $9.1 million to its $60.4 domestic total. Gone Girl eased down into fourth with $8.8 million and The Book of Life rounded out the top five with $8.3 million.
Last weekend’s second place film, John Wick, starring Keanu Reeves dropped into sixth with $8 million while St. Vincent minor theater expansion helped it gross $7.75 million, good for seventh.
Three month-long holdover films anchored the top ten with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day taking eighth with $6.5 million, The Judge in ninth with $3.4 million and Dracula Untold at tenth with $2.9 million.
Birdman expanded to 231 theaters and earned $2.51 million. Fox Searchlight will double the number of theaters next weekend as they continue to expand the film.
Meanwhile, two wide releases absolutely bombed at the box office.
The Nicole Kidman/Colin Firth thriller Before I Go to Sleep opened with $2 million while the Saw 10th Anniversary re-release brought in $650,000, one of the worst totals for a film opening in more than 2,000 theaters.
Meanwhile, China helped prop up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to lead the way internationally. The movie earned $34.7 million worldwide with $26.5 million of it coming from China. The movie has earned $434.5 million worldwide and could pass $500 million when it opens in Japan early next year.
The Maze Runner also got off to a hot start in China as well. The movie opened with $13.7 million helping push the film’s worldwide total to more than $300 million.