Weekend Box Office Report: September 26-28 2014

By Kip Mooney • On • In News News 0

 

BOX OFFICE REPORT September 26-28, 2014(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 51. The Equalizer ($35.0 million)2. The Maze Runner ($17.5 million)3. The Boxtrolls ($17.2 million)4. This is Where I Leave You ($11.8 million)5. Dolphin Tale 2  ($9.0 million)

Denzel Washington proved he has no equal. The actor reunited with his Training Day director Antoine Fuqua for an updated take on the '80s action series The Equalizer. The film opened at No. 1, taking in an estimated $35 million. That's one of the best September debuts ever and another solid opening for one of our greatest living actors.

The Maze Runner slipped to No. 2. While it fell less than 50 percent, it's probably not going to finish with more than $100 million at this point, hardly a franchise-worthy gross. But it was still enough to keep The Boxtrolls in third. Still, $17.2 million is the best opening yet for animation studio Laika.

This is Where I Leave You left itself a nice second week gross, and Dolphin Tale 2 didn't fall too much further behind either. Neither has really set the world on fire, but they've done modest business, which isn't exactly the worst thing. Modest business is better than no business.

Outside the top 5: - This Weekend's Indie Champ: Pride, the British drama about the 1980s alliance between miners and the LGBT community. It averaged $14,133 on its six screens

- A Walk Among the Tombstones is headed to an early grave. It fell nearly 70 percent, down to No. 7. It now may not even make back its $28 million budget.

- Guardians of the Galaxy has now passed the first Iron Man to become the Marvel Cinematic Universe's third-highest grossing movie ever. It's run its course and won't come close to Iron Man 3 or The Avengers, but it's still far and away the year's biggest movie.

Next week: Gone Girl. Gone Girl. Gone Girl. There's Annabelle, a prequel to The Conjuring, but who cares. Gone Girl is here. Adored by critics and sure to be cherished by audiences who made Gillian Flynn's novel such a smash in the first place, I wouldn't be surprised if it opens with $40 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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