GONE GIRL GOES TO FIRST PLACE AGAIN

It looks as if Gone Girl won’t be gone anytime soon. The David Fincher murder mystery starring Ben Affleck dropped a slender 30 percent in its second week to $26.8 million, according to studio estimates, suggesting that word-of-mouth about the movie has been strong. Given the fact that it has been drawing older moviegoers, many of whom don’t necessarily rush out to see films on their opening weekend, the probability is that it will stick around longer than most. In an interview with the Associated Press, veteran box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian remarked, "To have an adult drama like this hold up so well for two weekends in a row is really unusual." (It is the first film since Guardians of the Galaxy opened in early August to remain at the top of the box office for two consecutive weekends. Coincidentally, this was the first weekend since its debut that Guardians dropped out of the top ten.) It came in ahead of a slew of newcomers, including the Dracula "origins" movie, Dracula Untold, which placed second with a solid $23.4 million; the Disney family comedy Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which experienced the opposite sort of weekend with a haul of about $19.1 million — at the high end of forecasts — to place third; the Robert Duvall/Robert Downey Jr. drama The Judge with around $13.2 million, which came in fifth (another horror flick, Annabelle placed fourth with $16.3 million in its second weekend); Addicted, which placed seventh in just 846 theaters, debuting strongly with an estimated $7.6 million, for a per-screen average of nearly $9,000 (Gone Girl and Dracula Untold each averaged around $8,100 per theater); and a fifth newcomer, the documentary Meet the Mormons, produced by the Mormon Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), which managed to make the top ten although playing in 317 theaters with $2.9 million or $9,150 per screen.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Rentrak:
1. Gone Girl, $26.8 million; 2. Dracula Untold, $23.4 million; 3. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, $19.1 million; 4. Annabelle, $16.3 million; 5. The Judge, $13.3 million; 6. The Equalizer, $9.7 million; 7. Addicted, $7.6 million; 8. The Maze Runner, $7.5 million; 9. The Boxtrolls, $6.6 million; 10. Meet the Mormons, $2.9 million.