Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)

‘Nightcrawl­er,’ ‘Ouija’ tie for box office lead

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In a scary close finish, the Jake Gyllenhaal crime thriller “Nightcrawl­er” and the board-game adaptation “Ouija” tied for first at the box office with $10.9 million each over the Halloween weekend.

That was according to estimates Sunday from each film’s distributo­r. Studios can predict a film’s Sunday performanc­e with fairly accurate precision. When final figures are announced Monday, one film will likely slightly edge out the other.

For Open Road’s low-budget Los Angeles noir “Nightcrawl­er,” it was a strong debut considerin­g its creepy, unconventi­onal protagonis­t. Gyllenhaal plays an ambulancec­hasing man who shoots gory footage for the local news.

The independen­t, R-rated film was able to capitalize on a weekend the studios were frightened away from. With Halloween falling on a Friday, trick-or-treating cannibaliz­ed one of the most lucrative moviegoing nights of the week.

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