Brad Pitt’s ‘Fury’ Wrestles Down Ben Affleck’s ‘Gone Girl’ at US Box Office

Brad Pitt pushed Ben Affleck over this weekend in the United States. Pitt's war drama "Fury" beat Affleck's "Gone Girl" to secure the top position at the U.S. box officer.

Affleck's American mystery film, directed by David Fincher, ruled the U.S. box office for a couple of weeks. Gillian Flynn adapted her 2012 novel for the screen. The successful run of "Gone Girl" at the box office faced a setback as Pitt's movie set during the World War II moved it to the second spot. "Fury" has a star cast made of Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Jon Bernthal, Michael Peña, Jason Isaacs and Scott Eastwood. The movie is written and directed by David Ayer who had another of his movies released in 2014. It was crime action film "Sabotage" which had Arnold Schwarzenegger.

According to York Dispatch, Sony claimed that Pitt's movie earned $23.5 million during its opening weekend. On the other hand, 20th Century Fox's "Gone Girl" had $17.8 million during this weekend. Senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said that the fall movie season was a transition from the summer that had a majority of PG-13 movies. Both the top movies are R-rated adult dramas. Fox distribution chief Chris Aronson said that it would be a "full adult movie-going season." He said that there would be a lot more "adult-skewing fare."

However, the next two films also did well at the box office. Another Fox movie, a 3D computer-animated adventure musical comedy called "The Book of Life," secured the third position with $17 million. Disney's "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" secured the fourth place with $12 million. According to Aronson, "The Book of Life" was not only for children as it would suit any audience.

Indie Wire reported that "Fury" was expected to win the race at the box office as it had received highly positive reviews. However, the movie apparently failed to reach the projected collection which had been predicted to be more than $30 million during the weekend. While it should be considered a decent figure for an October drama, Pitt's involvement in the film should have be more beneficial. The Web site said that the figures were not even among the top 10 best openings for Brad Pitt films.

Here are the top movies this weekend at the U.S. box office:

1. Fury - $23.5 million

2. Gone Girl - $17.8 million

3. The Book of Life - $17 million

4. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - $12 million

5. The Best of Me - $10.2 million

6. Dracula Untold - $9.9 million

7. The Judge - $7.94 million

8. Annabelle - $7.92 million

9. The Equalizer - $5.4 million

10. The Maze Runner - $4.5 millions

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au