Weekend Box Office Report: September 12-14, 2014

No Good Deed menaces the box office!

Audiences were looking for some home-invasion frights this weekend, putting NO GOOD DEED on top of the box office with an estimated $24.5 million!

The PG-13 thriller, starring Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson, broke a string of slow box office weekends and nearly doubled its reported production cost with its opening. Audiences responded with a 'B+' CinemaScore, but critics slammed the door with a 12% average on Rotten Tomatoes.

DOLPHIN TALE 2 splashed in second place with a $16.5 million opening. The new sequel continues the story of prosthetic-tailed dolphin Winter (and human handlers Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr. and Morgan Freeman), and crowds cheered the latest feel-good tale with a straight 'A' CinemaScore as critics nodded agreeably with 73% on Rotten Tomatoes. The first DOLPHIN TALE opened to $19.1 million in 2011 and waded to a $72.2 million domestic total.

After three weekends on top, Marvel's GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY gave up the crown and slipped to third with an additional $8 million, and became the first 2014 release to pass $300 million domestic. It has also soared to $611 million worldwide as it slowly approaches the global totals of Marvel's own IRON MAN 2 and THOR: THE DARK WORLD.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES came in fourth with $4.8 million as the reptilian warriors have reached $319 million worldwide. The R-rated comedy LET'S BE COPS continues patrolling the middle of the chart, staying just ahead of surprise performer THE DROP in sixth with $4.2 million.

The new Tom Hardy/James Gandolfini crime drama opened on just 809 screens but had the second-highest per-screen average in the Top 10, perhaps thanks in part to strong critical reaction (88% on Rotten Tomatoes).

The teen drama IF I STAY dropped to seventh with another $4 million, and the Chloe Moretz young-adult adaptation is up to nearly $45 million on a modest $11 million reported budget. THE NOVEMBER MAN, THE GIVER and THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY rounded out the list.

Outside the chart, WHEN THE GAMES STANDS TALL, AS ABOVE/SO BELOW and LUCY got nudged out of sight, while the Bill Hader/Kristen Wiig comedy-drama THE SKELETON TWINS was the healthiest of the limited release offerings with a solid $27k per-screen average and an impressive 89% Rotten Tomatoes average.

Next weekend brings Kevin Smith's new horror movie TUSK, the latest young-adult adaptation THE MAZE RUNNER, the all-star comedy THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU, and the Liam Neeson detective drama A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES, plus limited releases of the buzzed thriller THE GUEST, Simon Pegg's drama HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS, and Terry Gilliam's THE ZERO THEOREM.

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