Fury, the bloody World War II tank drama starring Brad Pitt, easily topped the weekend box office with an estimated $23.5 million, while two other newcomers, the animated The Book of Life and the romance The Best of Me, also placed in the top five.  Together with strong performances from Gone Girl and other holdovers, the new entries helped Hollywood to yet another strong fall weekend performance with the total of the top 12 films 24.7% higher than the same weekend last year when Gravity maintained its hold on the third straight weekend with $30 million.  Also opening successfully in limited release were the critically-acclaimed Birdman, the clever college comedy Dear White People, and the latest Studio Ghibli film from director Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies).
 
Fury, which was written and directed by David Ayer, who has been named the director of DC’s upcoming Suicide Squad movie (see "'Suicide Squad' Names Director"), posted the fourth best opening for a World War II movie ever (not adjusted for inflation).  The grisly war drama attracted an audience that was predominantly male (60%) and older (51% over 35), and they gave the film an "A-" CinemaScore, which should translate to a fairly long stay in theaters--and the strong U.S. opening should help the $68 million film overseas where it will need to do well since it will likely end its U.S. run right around the $80 million mark.
 
Gone Girl, which had spent the last two weeks at #1, slipped 32.6% as it earned $1 7.8 million, which was good enough for second place.  The David Fincher-helmed drama has now earned $107 million and should easily surpass Fincher’s previous highest-grossing release The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ($127.5 million) by the end of the month.
 
The Guillermo Del Toro-produced animated feature The Book of Life debuted with $17 million and could potentially end up in second place when the official figures are toted up tomorrow.  While not a huge opening, The Book of Life debuted in a market with two other "family films," Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and The Box Trolls still drawing crowds in the cinemas.  The Book of Life, with its "Day of the Dead" theme did particularly well with Hispanics, who made up 30% of the opening weekend audience, which skewed female (57%) and younger (54% under 25).
 
Disney’s Alexander, which is just in its second weekend in theaters, dropped 34.4% as it earned $12 million and drove its domestic total to $36.9 million.  With a modest $28 million price tag, Alexander has a good chance at profitability, particularly if it can do any business overseas.
 
Fifth place went to Nicholas Sparks’ romantic drama The Best of Me, which debuted with $10.2 million, the lowest total of any of the films from the creator of The Notebook.  Produced for just $26 million with a cast of solid actors (James Marsden, Michele Monaghan) rather than big name stars, The Best of Me could be a rare misfire for Sparks, but it is too early to write off the film yet, especially since its "B+" CinemaScore indicates that a substantial portion of the film’s opening weekend audience liked it.
 
Legendary’s Dracula Untold dropped 57.9% in its second weekend as it earned $9.9 million and brought its domestic total to $40.7 million.  The $70 million production has already earned $95.7 million overseas (primarily in South America), so it appears that this historical/fantasy approach to Dracula will be back in some sort of sequel in the next few years.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): October 17-19, 2014
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	Fury	$23,500,000	3,173	$7,406	$23,500,000	1
2	Gone Girl	$17,800,000	3,249	$5,479	$107,069,000	3
3	The Book of Life	$17,000,000	3,070	$5,537	$17,000,000	1
4	Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day	$12,039,000	3,088	$3,899	$36,871,000	2
5	The Best of Me	$10,200,000	2,936	$3,474	$10,200,000	1
6	Dracula Untold	$9,889,000	2,900	$3,410	$40,735,000	2
7	The Judge	$7,940,000	3,003	$2,644	$26,843,000	2
8	Annabelle	$7,925,000	2,878	$2,754	$74,127,000	3
9	The Equalizer	$5,450,000	2,262	$2,409	$89,170,000	4
10	The Maze Runner	$4,500,000	2,155	$2,088	$90,837,000	5

The Robert Downey, Jr./Robert Duvall "battle of the thespians" also known as The Judge, dropped just 39.5% it is second frame as it brought its domestic total to $26.8 million.  This $50 million production really needs to do well overseas to overcome its lackluster domestic debut, and, given the film’s subject matter, that may not be easy.
 
Warner Bros. horror movie Annabelle dropped 50% in its third weekend as it added nearly $8 million driving its domestic total to $74.1 million.  The $6.5 million spin-off of The Conjuring is trailing the box office performance of its predecessor by a lot, but Annabelle is already absurdly profitable.
 
The Denzel Washington-starring The Equalizer earned $5.4 million it is fourth weekend, driving its domestic total to nearly $90 milli0n.  With $70 million earned overseas already, The Equalizer is now in the black--but will Denzel want to do a sequel?
 
Fox’s dystopian teen drama The Maze Runner earned $4.5 million in its fifth weekend driving its domestic total to $90.9 million, but the $34 million film has already earned $160.7 million overseas making it a certified hit.
 
A number of interesting films opened in limited release including Alexander Inarritu’s dark comedy Birdman, which stars Michael Keaton as a fading actor who played superhero roles earlier in a career that has clearly hit the skids.  Birdman, which averaged $103,750 from four theaters (the second-highest per venue average of the year after Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel), appears to be an Oscar contender.
 
James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty much done here, but it is doing very well in China, where big grosses have lifted the film’s overseas total to $404.8 million.  With a worldwide total of $732. 6 million, GOTG has a solid chance to top X-Men: Days of Future Past’s 2014-Worldwide leading total of $746 million and become the highest-grossing film of the year (at least until the new Hunger Games film completes its run).
 
Also debuting strongly in limited release was writer/director Justin Simien’s comedy about race relations in an exclusive Ivy League college, Dear White People, which averaged $31,272 from 11 theaters. 
 
Opening in just three theaters, Isao Takahata’s The Tale of Princess Kaguya, the latest Studio Ghibli release from the director of Grave of the Fireflies, averaged a respectable $17,233 per screen.
 
Be sure to check back here next week to see how the bloody Keanu Reeves-starring action film John Wick fares, when it opens wide along with Universal’s Hasbro-based horror film Ouija and the Christian-themed sports drama 23 Blast.
 
--Tom Flinn