"Gone Girl" defeated "Annabelle" by a small margin this weekend and has enlivened the box office after a disappointing summer.

The David Fincher film made an estimated $38 million in 3,014 theaters and gave the director his highest opening thus far. The success of the film is due to the book's following and the fact that the movie received rave reviews. Distributor 20th Century Fox also contributed with a huge marketing campaign and the awards buzz also helped spawn interest.

"Gone Girl's opening topped recent awards films that were released in October including "Argo," "Captain Phillips" and "The Departed." With a lot of buzz and good word-of-mouth, this film is likely to maintain a steady following and eventually reach the $100 million mark.

Warner Bros has a good outing with "Annabelle" as the film made $37 million in 3,185 theaters. While the sum was not as impressive as last year's "The Conjuring," the movie was still profitable given the $6 million budget and the lack of A-List stars. Reviews were also not as good as "The Conjuring."

This is the first Horror flick besides "The Purge: Anarchy" to perform well over this past year. Horror flicks are usually front-loaded and usually fade out of theaters quickly. However with Halloween still four weeks away and with no horror flicks coming out, "Annabelle" is likely to continue strong through October.

Denzel Washington's "The Equalizer" continued its solid run and only dropped 44 percent. The feature brought in an exceptional $19 million and raised its total to $64 million. It is expected the action thriller could end its run with over $100 million.

"The Boxtrolls" also had a good weekend as it was off 28 percent from last weekend. The animated feature made $12.4 million and brought its total to $32 million. "The Boxtrolls" is already performing better than Laika's last film "ParaNorman" and is likely to end its theatrical run above the $60 million mark.

Similarly "The Maze Runner" continued to bring audiences to the theater. In its third weekend, the science fiction flick made $12 million and brought its cumulative gross to $73 million. The $100 million mark does not seem possible, but it still has a chance of making the $90 million.

In sixth place Nicolas Cage's "Left Behind" pulled in $6.8 million. The opening was better than recent faith-based movies "The Identical" and "Mom's Night Out." However, it fared worse than "When the Game Stands Tall," "God's Not Dead" and "Heaven is for Real."

The film is based on a book series that was originally made into movies by Kirk Cameron a few years ago and has a huge following. However, it isn't clear if this movie, which scored dismal reviews, will hold throughout the next weeks.

"This is Where I Leave You" brought in another $4 million for a disappointing total of $29 million, while "Dolphin Tale 2" continued to hold and made $3.5 million. The family film brought its total to $37 million.

Opening in 271 theaters the Bollywood production "Bang Bang" attracted foreign audiences and made $1.2 million.

Meanwhile Reese Witherspoon could not bring audiences to her latest "The Good Lie." The feature, which opened in a modest 461 theaters only, mustered up $935,000. The well-reviewed featured was barely marketed, and while it was thought of as an Oscar contender, it seems Warner Bros. will quickly fade it out and bring it home to video.

Opening in 17 theaters "Men, Women and Child" bombed only making $48,000. The hyperlink drama premiered at Toronto International Film Festival to negative reviews, and Latin Post previously reported it was "hurt by its constant lecturing and its lack of innovative and original ideas." Paramount is planning on mounting an awards campaign and will expand it in the next week nationwide. However, with these results expect the movie to bomb with such a crowded slate.

Mathieu Amalric's "Blue Room" opened to better results in three theaters. The film made $22,100 after receiving rave reviews. The drama, which is also playing on VOD, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and later showed at the New York Film Festival.

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