The numbers are in for the Box Office results of September 19-21, 2014, let’s see how the films did shall we? We had some YA and some crime, plus Kevin Smith’s newest. If none of this is sounding familiar you can check out our weekend movie preview from Friday and freshen your memory.
At the top of the list is the newest entry in Young Adult Novels moving to the big screen, “The Maze Runner” did a respectable $32 million which is better than a lot of recent YA novels turned movie. Fox is going full bore and has already announced a sequel that will hit September 18, 2014. “The Maze Runner” had a small budget, which it has already recouped, which helps it out but it also did some solid marketing.
Also opening over the weekend was the latest Liam Neeson Kills People flick, “A Walk Among the Tombstones” which did a paltry $12.7 million. There was little marketing and I honestly couldn’t tell you what it was about. Which is similar to “This is Where I Leave You” which opened in 3rd place. It seemed to be banking on the like-ability of its cast and did poorly. Speaking of doing poorly…Kevin Smith’s “Tusk” bombed at $846,831. It opened in 602 theaters but pulled in less “The Giver” in week 6. You can read our review of it here.
| RANK | Title | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Week # | ||||||
| 1 | The Maze Runner | $32,512,804 | – | $32,512,804 | 1 | ||||||
| 2 | A Walk Among the Tombstones | $12,758,780 | – | $12,758,780 | 1 | ||||||
| 3 | This is Where I Leave You | $11,558,149 | – | $11,558,149 | 1 | ||||||
| 4 | No Good Deed (2014) | $9,794,188 | -59.6% | $39,702,240 | 2 | ||||||
| 5 | Dolphin Tale 2 | $8,868,076 | -44.1% | $26,932,970 | 2 | ||||||
Next week sees the release of the “The Boxtrolls” and “The Equalizer” so with a kids film we might see a small shakeup in the top 5 but I don’t expect much from another generic Denzel Kills People flick.
A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a films success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.
All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.