Summary ‘Gone Girl’ grabbed No 1 spot at the box office with a $38 million debut.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - "Annabelle" couldn t scare off "Gone Girl" at the weekend box office.
The Fox thriller starring Ben Affleck as a man whose wife goes missing overcame the Warner Bros. possessed doll horror with a $38 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Both films join the recently released "The Maze Runner" and "The Equalizer" in crossing the $30 million mark this fall, a typically low-earning season at the box office.
"It was virtually a photo finish," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak. "These two movies couldn t be more different. It shows how if the marketplace presents a diversity of product, audiences will come out. It s the third and fourth $30 million debut of the past two weeks. It s been a great post-summer run."
"Gone Girl" is based on the best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn and was directed by "The Social Network" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" filmmaker David Fincher.
"I think David Fincher made a very provocative, thought-provoking film," said Chris Aronson, head of distribution for Fox. "I think there was this crescendo of publicity and social media chatter that made Gone Girl into a zeitgeisty movie that you have to see to be part of the conversation."
"Annabelle" debuted closely behind "Gone Girl" with $37.2 million. The movie stars Ward Horton and Annabelle Wallis as new parents who bring the creepy porcelain plaything seen in last year s haunted house horror "The Conjuring" into their home.
Sony s "The Equalizer," last week s top performer, came in third place in its second weekend with $19 million, bringing its total domestic haul to $64.5 million. The revenge thriller starring Denzel Washington reteams him with director Antoine Fuqua, who helmed 2001 s "Training Day," the film that earned Washington an Oscar for best actor.
"Left Behind," the weekend s other big debut, opened in sixth place with $6.8 million. The Rapture-set film starring Nicholas Cage is based on the novel of the same name.
Dergarabedian said overall ticket sales for the weekend box office were $149 million, an 18 percent increase from the same weekend last year.
