Friday Report: 'Fury' Rolls in to First Place on Friday
On a somewhat quiet day at the box office, Brad Pitt's Fury easily took first place with $8.8 million.

That debut is a bit higher than last October's Captain Phillips ($8.5 million), and also noticeably better than The Monuments Men ($6.9 million). Still, it's way off from recent R-rated hits The Equalizer ($12.5 million) and Gone Girl ($13.2 million). For the weekend, Fury is on track to earn $24 to $27 million.

Entering its third weekend, Gone Girl eased 32 percent to an estimated $5.55 million. To date, the movie has earned $94.8 million, and will pass $100 million sometime today. For the weekend, Gone Girl will likely earn over $18 million.

The Book of Life opened in third place with $4.95 million. That's identical to The Boxtrolls ($4.93 million), and is a bit higher than Reel FX's first feature-length movie (last November's Free Birds, which opened to $3.9 million). For the weekend, The Book of Life should end up between $17 and $18 million.

Playing at 2,936 theaters, The Best of Me debuted to $4.14 million on Friday. That's less than half of what the last two Nicholas Sparks movies earned on their opening days (though Safe Haven was on Valentine's Day). The Best of Me is now on track to earn less than $12 million this weekend, which would make this the lowest debut ever for a Sparks adaptation.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day dipped 39 percent to $3.24 million. That's a good hold that should translate in to at least $12 million for the three-day weekend.

Coming off a solid debut last weekend, Dracula Untold plummeted 68 percent to an estimated $2.9 million. For the three-day frame, the movie will likely end up below $10 million.

Birdman opened at four locations and earned a massive $136,000 yesterday. For the weekend, it should wind up with a per-theater average in the $100,000 to $120,000 range.

Jason Reitman's Men, Women & Children expanded nationwide to 608 theaters and earned a horrible $99,000 (yes, that's less than what Birdman earned at four theaters). Based on this paltry per-theater average (it should be less than $600 for the weekend), look for this to disappear quickly from theaters.

Weekend Projections

1. Fury - $25 million

2. Gone Girl - $18 million

3. The Book of Life - $17.5 million

4. Alexander - $12 million

5. The Best of Me - $11.5 million

6. Dracula Untold - $9.8 million

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Forecast: 'Fury' to Invade Top Spot This Weekend

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Grosses for Friday, October 17, 2014

• 2014 Domestic Box Office