APEX Hollywood Shortlist: Pyramids Aren’t the Only Things Cursed During Sleepy Weekend B.O.
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If Thanksgiving weekend is one of the busiest of the year at the North American box office, the weekend afterwards could probably best be described as a sleepy, post-feast nap. And with virtually no major studio releases to speak of, this past weekend was even sleepier than most.
Not even the creepy thrills and chills of Fox’s “found footage” horror flick The Pyramid (the only big studio release to open wide over the weekend) could rouse the drowsy box office from it’s splendor. Despite being directed and produced by the French horror film auteurs behind 2003’s art house splatter fest High Tension, The Pyramid could only rise to a ninth place finish with $1.3M.
- Marvel Studios, Guardians of the Galaxy
Holding strong in its third week in theatres, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I reeled in a respectable $22M and should overtake Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s overall gross of $259M in the next few days to become the second highest grossing film of 2014. Claiming the number one spot for the year should prove tougher for Mockingjay, however, as it will have to do battle with the unstoppable Guardians of the Galaxy which is still performing well in theatres (despite the fact that it opened in August and debuts on DVD and Blu-Ray today) with a whopping $332M haul to date.
- Focus Features, The Theory of Everything
Also opening in limited release over the weekend was the Reese Witherspoon true life drama Wild (Fox Searchlight), which took in a healthy $28K per screen on 21 screens. Directed by Dallas Buyer’s Club helmer Jean-Marc Vallée with a script by best-selling novelist Nick Hornby, Wild should gain traction with audiences and award season voters alike as it expands over the next few weeks. In other indie biopic news, Focus Features’ The Theory of Everything and The Weinstein Company’s The Imitation Game picked up steam and a handful of other nominations from film critics groups last week to finish the weekend with $13.5M and $1M respectively.