Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
‘Nightcrawler,’ ‘Ouija’ tie for box office lead
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.