It took the self-punishing power of Johnny Knoxville to finally dislodge GRAVITY from the top of the box office, putting JACKASS PRESENTS BAD GRANDPA at #1 with an opening of $32 million!
BAD GRANDPA puts Knoxville in old-man makeup as senior citizen Irving Zisman on an R-rated cross-country trip with his grandson, with numerous collisions and concussions occurring along the way. While its opening is quite a bit below JACKASS 3D's $50.3 million opening back in October 2010 (it went on to $117.2 million total), BAD GRANDPA has already more than doubled its reported $15M production budget, and crowds gave the crash comedy a 'B' CinemaScore.
GRAVITY still has plenty of thruster fuel in second place, collecting another $20.3 million in its fourth week as it nears $200 million domestically (plus an additional $114 million from overseas), now making it the biggest October release (MEET THE PARENTS hit $166.2 million in the year 2000). CAPTAIN PHILLIPS is still cruising along in third with $11.8 million, a 28% drop from its second weekend.
The A-list cast wasn't enough to push THE COUNSELOR higher than a fourth place opening with only $8 million. The R-rated thriller from director Ridley Scott and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN writer Cormac McCarthy got brutalized by audiences, who whomped it with a rare and lethal 'D' CinemaScore. And critics weren't any more gentle, judging by that 35% average on Rotten Tomatoes.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 finally bit into the $100 million mark after five weeks in theaters, while two of last weekend's new releases, the R-rated CARRIE and ESCAPE PLAN, dipped to sixth and seventh (drops of 63% and 56% respectively).
On a mere 123 screens, the acclaimed historical drama 12 YEARS A SLAVE scrambled onto the chart in eighth place with $2.1 million, and a per-screen average nearly twice that of the #1 movie. Actors Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt will likely end up with far more attention for this film (95% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 'A' CinemaScore) than their work in THE COUNSELOR, which will be lucky to last more than a week on the chart.
ENOUGH SAID and PRISONERS finish out the list, while INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 2 and RUNNER RUNNER exit the chart along with THE FIFTH ESTATE after a single weekend in the Top 10. For limited releases, the NC-17 French love story BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR had the most impact with a $25k per-screen average.
Next weekend brings the sci-fi epic ENDER'S GAME, the computer-animated family flick FREE BIRDS, and the old fogey bachelor party comedy LAST VEGAS, plus limited releases DALLAS BUYERS CLUB, the biopic DIANA and the romcom ABOUT TIME.
