Battle at the Box Office 10/20

Fury was able to unseat Gone Girl from the top spot at the box office this weekend with the 5th best World War II film opening.  Fury took in $23.5 million, putting it ahead of fellow WWII film from earlier this year, The Monuments Men, and right behind Saving Private Ryan’s opening of $30 million.  According to Box Office Mojo, Captain America: The First Avenger is the highest opening World War II movie of all time but if we are talking less fantastical, the best opening is Pearl Harbor.

Gone Girl dropped to second with another $17.5 million, putting it over $106 million total for it’s three weeks out and it’s on track to be David Fincher’s highest grossing movie.

The Book of Life opened up with $17.5 million, about on par with most of the recent family movie openings like Boxtrolls, Dolphin Tale 2 and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which dropped to fourth with $12 million and just over $36 million for it’s two weeks out.

The Best of Me rounded out the top 5 but it was the worst ever opening for the Nicholas Sparks brand, making less than half of Safe Haven and nowhere near The Notebook or Dear John.

Dracula Untold dropped to sixth from second last week with an almost 60% drop off but it could top out around $60 million and it’s doing well internationally as well, so the Universal Monsters Universe is on track to kick off.

Down in limited release, Michael Keaton’s Birdman opened in only four theaters but made $424,397 in them, which is one of the best Per Screen openings of all time.