NORTH AMERICA: Weekend Actuals: 'No Good Deed' Leads with $24.25M; 'Dolphin Tale 2' #2 with $15.87M; 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Surpasses $300M Milestone

By Daniel Garris

Sony's No Good Deed debuted in first place this weekend with $24.25 million. The low-budget thriller starring Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson exceeded its rising expectations heading into the weekend. Much of the film's success was due to the drawing power of Elba and Henson. No Good Deed was also helped out by the fairly empty marketplace this weekend and Screen Gems has had a strong history with thrillers in the past. The film's opening weekend performance was similar to the $23.45 million start of I Can Do Bad All By Myself back in September of 2009.

No Good Deed opened with $8.82 million on Friday, increased 11 percent on Saturday to take in $9.78 million and declined 42 percent on Sunday to gross $5.65 million. That placed the film's opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.75 to 1. The audience breakdown for the film skewed towards female moviegoers (60 percent) and towards moviegoers 30 years and older (59 percent). No Good Deed received a B+ rating on CinemaScore, which is very solid for a thriller.

Dolphin Tale 2 opened in second place with $15.87 million. The family film sequel from Warner Bros. opened on the low end of pre-release expectations and 17 percent below the $19.15 million start of Dolphin Tale back in September of 2011. Dolphin Tale 2 was helped out by solid critical reviews and by the recent lack of family fare in the marketplace.

Dolphin Tale 2 grossed $4.27 million on Friday, increased a healthy 75 percent on Saturday to gross $7.46 million and fell 44 percent on Sunday to take in $4.15 million. That placed the opening weekend to Friday ratio for the film at 3.72 to 1. The audience breakdown for the film skewed towards female moviegoers (63 percent) and moviegoers over the age of 25 (56 percent). Like its predecessor (which registered a total gross to opening weekend ratio of 3.77 to 1), Dolphin Tale 2 will hope to hold up well going forward. The film's strong A rating on CinemaScore is an encouraging early sign.

After leading the box office for each of the past three weekends, Guardians of the Galaxy was down two spots to place in third with $8.10 million. In the process, the blockbuster sci-fi superhero adaptation from Disney and Marvel surpassed the $300 million domestic mark this weekend; making it the first release of 2014 to do so. The 45-day total for the film stands at $305.99 million. Guardians of the Galaxy held up very nicely this weekend, as it was down just 22 percent from last weekend.

Paramount's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles placed in fourth with $4.86 million. The blockbuster franchise re-launch was down a healthy 25 percent from last weekend. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continues to exceed expectations in a big way with a 38-day take of $181.09 million.

Fox Searchlight's The Drop was off to a surprisingly strong sixth place start with $4.10 million. The fairly last minute decision to open The Drop in moderate release paid off, as the crime drama starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and the late James Gandolfini earned a very solid per-location average of $5,074 from 809 locations. The Drop opened with $1.46 million on Friday, increased 20.5 percent on Saturday to take in $1.76 million and declined 49.5 percent on Sunday to gross $0.89 million. That placed the film's opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.82 to 1.

Holdovers Let's Be Cops and If I Stay claimed fifth and seventh place with respective takes of $4.38 million and $3.94 million. Fox's Let's Be Cops was down only 21 percent from last weekend, while Warner's If I Stay was down a healthy 29 percent. Both films continue to perform well, especially with their low production costs in mind. Respective total grosses stand at $73.05 million for Let's Be Cops in 33 days and at $44.82 million for If I Stay in 24 days.

On the platform front, Roadside's The Skeleton Twins was off to a very solid start this weekend with $0.381 million from 15 locations. That gave the comedy drama starring Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig a per-location average of $25,379 for the frame. The Skeleton Twins is scheduled to receive a major expansion on September 26.