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Free Birds cost $55 million to bring to the screen, but Relativity also spent some serious bucks marketing the film. It will need at least a 4.0 opening-to-total multiplier to see domestic success (completely achievable for a kids movie) but there are some serious concerns. How well will a US Thanksgiving movie play overseas, or even in Canada? Additionally, Free Birds has three weekends to go until Thanksgiving, two of which have films that are destined to be a couple of the bigger openers of the year. Will it play past Thanksgiving? It is heavily doubtful considering Disney’s Frozen appears on November 27th. Free Birds is a risky bet at best in my opinion, so we will have to see how it all plays out.

Fifth is Gravity, which gets pushed to the side somewhat as we have new 3D entries from Ender’s Game and Free Birds. After pulling in $20.1 million in its fourth frame last weekend, Gravity dropped 36% to $13.1 million in its fifth frame. That’s the biggest drop it has seen in its run thus far; however, only 45 films have ever grossed $11+ million in their fifth frames, so the weekend is nothing to sneeze at. The $100 million space thriller has now pulled in an amazing $219.2 million on the domestic front, and is sitting around $160 million overseas.

Sixth is Captain Phillips, which is now in its fourth weekend. The Tom Hanks starrer pulled in another $8.5 million, giving it a drop of 27%. The Sony thriller still has a shot at $100 million domestic, but it will be a bit of a struggle. Captain Phillips has earned $82.6 million domestically thus far, and is approaching the $30 million mark overseas. The film cost only $55 million to produce.

12 Years a Slave expands further this weekend, adding another 287 venues to bring the count up to a still small 410 screens. Despite the small count, 12 Years managed a weekend take of $4.6 million, giving the Oscar contender an increase over last weekend of 115%. It had a venue average of $11,220. Despite the low theater count, the Fox Searchlight release has already earned $8.8 million and cost only $20 million to make.

Eighth is Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, which ironically is getting chased by a movie about eating turkeys. Cloudy 2 earned $4.2 million in its sixth frame, and falls 33%. The $78 million Sony release has now taken in $106.2 million domestically, and another $50 million overseas.

Carrie, the Sony/MGM/Screen Gems failed Halloween release, finishes in ninth. Carrie earned another $3.4 million this weekend and fell 43%. The $30 million film has now matched its production budget stateside with a gross so far of $32 million.

Tenth is The Counselor, which gets hammered in the second frame. The Fox release fell a nasty 59% from its debut, matching the awful reviews and Cinemascore it received. The $25 million film has earned only $13.4 million so far.

Overall this weekend, numbers were better, but still not quite enough to get ahead of last year’s results. A year ago, Wreck-It Ralph opened to $49 million and Flight earned $25 million in their debuts, leading the top 12 to $124.6 million. This year, the top 12 earned $121.7 million. Next weekend brings Thor: The Dark World to anxious audiences, as Marvel and Disney look to improve on the $65 million the first Thor film earned in 2011. The biggest non-Twilight or Harry Potter opener in the month of November is last year’s Skyfall, which debuted to $88 million over the same weekend last year.

Top Weekend Box Office for 11/1/13-11/3/13 (Estimates)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	Ender's Game	Warner Bros.	$28,000,000	New	$28,000,000
2	Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa	PARAMOUNT	$20,500,000	- 36%	$62,058,000
3	Last Vegas	Cbs Films	$16,520,000	New	$16,520,000
4	Free Birds	Relativity	$16,200,000	New	$16,200,000
5	Gravity	WARNER BROS.	$13,130,000	- 35%	$219,196,000
6	Captain Phillips	SONY	$8,500,000	- 27%	$82,551,000
7	12 Years a Slave	FOX SEARCHLIGHT	$4,600,000	+ 116%	$8,760,300
8	Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2	SONY	$4,200,000	- 33%	$106,195,000
9	Carrie	SONY	$3,400,000	- 43%	$31,973,000
10	The Counselor	Fox	$3,250,000	- 59%	$13,637,500
11	Escape Plan	Lionsgate	$2,280,000	- 50%	$21,599,746
12	Krrish 3	Eros	$1,125,000	New	$1,125,000
	Also Opening/Notables
	About Time	UNIVERSAL	$1,000,000	New	$1,000,000
	Dallas Buyers Club	Focus Features	$264,128	New	$264,128
	Diana	Entertainment One	$75,000	New	$75,000
	Man of Tai Chi	Radius/twc	$50,000	New	$50,000
	The Pervert's Guide To Ideology	Zeitgeist	$9,500	New	$9,500
	These Birds Walk	Oscilloscope	$8,000	New	$8,000
	The Broken Circle Breakdown	Tribeca Film	$7,075	New	$7,075
	Running From Crazy	Vitagraph Films	$7,000	New	$7,000
	Sal	Tribeca Film	$6,750	New	$6,750
	Blue Is the Warmest Color	IFC Films	$225,000	+ 124%	$380,000
	Capital	Cohen Media	$41,224	+ 84%	$71,311
	The Square	Noujaim Films	$12,025	- 26%	$32,720
	All Is Lost	Roadside Attractions	$575,000	+ 14%	$1,450,000
	Kill Your Darlings	Sony Classics	$72,648	+ 73%	$224,543
	Enough Said	FOX SEARCHLIGHT	$1,075,000	- 32%	$14,798,700
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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