Box Office: 'Fury' Opens at No. 1, 'Best of Me' Bombs
The box office numbers are in, and it's good news for male-driven dramas, and bad news for romantic tearjerkers.
Fury, from director David Ayer, opened at No. 1 at the domestic box office with $23.5 million, making this one of the best openings of all-time for a World War II film. Starring Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal, Fury cost $68 million to produce. However, strong reviews and stronger word-of-mouth should carry it into profitable territory, as it gained traction not only with older male audiences, but also with women drawn to the film by Pitt, Sony distribution chief Rory Bruer, who noted, "It's really resonating with all audiences."
Twentieth Century Fox's Gone Girl, meanwhile, has reached $200 million worldwide thanks in large part to its continued success in North America. The movie narrowly claimed the No. 2 spot from The Book of Life, which doubles the bragging rights for 20th Century Fox, since the animated comedy is one of their films too, meaning the studio currently holds the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively. Impressively, Gone Girl only took a 33 percent hit from last week, raking in $17.8 million to bring its current domestic haul to $107.1 million. This was just enough to keep ahead of Book of Life, the animated family film produced by Guillermo del Toro, which earned $17 million.
Unfortunately, the news wasn't nearly as good for Nicholas Sparks, as The Best of Me is the worst opening of all-time for a Nicholas Sparks adaptation. Starring Michelle Monaghan, James Marsden, Luke Bracey, and Liana Liberato, The Best of Me opened at No. 5 with $10.2 million, dropping under the previous lowpoint, 2002's A Walk to Remember ($12.2 million).
The Best of Me cost $26 million to make, which would suggest this is far worse news than it actually is. But the financial risk was minimized by Relativity Media choosing to split costs with DiNovi Pictures and Nicholas Sparks Productions. In addition, a combination of selling international rights and utilizing tax credits kept the risk low. That said, the $26 million budget doesn't include the money spent on marketing. So this is still a loss for Relativity, as the film proved unable to even open above holdover Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which took the No. 4 spot with $12 million.
But where did the rest of the Top 10 rank? Check out the box office numbers below:
1. Fury ($23.5 million)
2. Gone Girl ($17.8 million)
3. The Book of Life ($17 million)
4. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day ($12 million)
5. The Best of Me ($10.2 million)
6. Dracula Untold ($9.9 million)
7. The Judge ($7.94 million)
8. Annabelle ($7.92 million)
9. The Equalizer ($5.5 million)
10. The Maze Runner ($4.5 million)
Credit: Columbia Pictures