CDC: Protocol breach in treating Ebola patient

WASHINGTON — A top federal health official says a health worker diagnosed with Ebola has been unable to identify a breach in procedures that might have led to her infection.

Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the Texas hospital worker had extensive contact with Thomas Eric Duncan before Duncan died Wednesday from Ebola.

Frieden says the worker has a low level of virus and is being monitored.

He says the diagnosis of the worker — who's not identified — clearly shows that there was a breach of protocol.

Among the things CDC will investigate is removal of protective gear, because removing gear incorrectly can lead to a contamination.

The investigation will look at dialysis and intubation — procedures with the potential for spreading infectious material.

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Concord teen using Kickstarter to fund Nancy Drew game

For nearly a century, Nancy Drew, the bright, young amateur sleuth in the mystery series of the same name, has served as a role model for the likes of Hillary Rodham Clinton, former First Lady Laura Bush and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Now, a 16-year-old Concord girl who shares the same admiration for the fictional heroine has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund her first entrepreneurial venture: the Nancy Drew Board Game.

"I feel especially in the modern day, (Nancy) is a huge role model, not only for girls, but for all young people who aren't sure they can make their dreams come true," said Quincy MacShane, who has read all 56 books in the series, beginning when she was about 9. "She gave me the confidence to know I could make mine come true. She empowered me."

One night about three years ago, Quincy was in her room and her parents came in and asked if she had finished her homework.

"No, but I have this," she said, holding up the game she'd made on the back of a Monopoly board.

Designed for two to four players ages 8 and up, the game is a kind of Trivial Pursuit for Nancy Drew fans. Players choose a character and a token from the series — a magnifying glass, a flashlight, Nancy's roadster — and move around the board's perimeter, "buying" books from the series by correctly answering questions about them. The player who acquires the most titles wins.

When Quincy told her father she wanted to make the game for more people so that they could learn about Nancy Drew, he said, "That's a big endeavor."

"We as parents want to encourage our kids to be creative," Nick MacShane said. "What we were surprised by was how persistent she was."

Quincy made a second version of the game, which a family friend, a designer, helped refine. And then she and her father approached Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, which owns the Nancy Drew trademark, and demonstrated the game.

"I was very impressed," said Stephanie Voros, vice president and director of subsidiary rights. "It's a niche market, but, 84 years after the first book was published, there are still enthusiastic fans like Quincy out there. She really represents the Nancy Drew reader these days, who is smart and inquisitive."

After obtaining the rights from Simon and Schuster, Quincy and her family formed a company, Sutherland (her middle name) Games, which she heads as president. Then she applied for a patent and launched a campaign on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter to raise $20,000, with the hope of getting the game on store shelves before the holidays.

As of Friday, with 15 days to go in the campaign, she had raised $8,346.

"I did not anticipate the amount of support I'm getting," Quincy said. "To have it come this far is an amazing feeling."

To support the game, go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2026070997/nancy-drew-board-game

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Global finance leaders pledge bold efforts

WASHINGTON — World financial leaders on Saturday promised "bold and ambitious" action to boost a global recovery that has shown recent disturbing signs of weakness.

That pledge from the International Monetary Fund's policy-setting committee comes after a week of stomach-churning swings in the financial markets triggered by growing fears that parts of Europe could be in danger of slipping into another recession.

The 188-nation IMF called increasing economic growth an "utmost priority" and pledged to make the necessary structural changes that would stimulate greater growth. However, finance leaders have made similar promises in the past, only to fall short when trying to follow through.

The commitments came in a closing statement from the IMF's steering committee at the fall meeting of the IMF and World Bank.

Officials also endorsed the IMF's efforts to support three West African countries battling the Ebola crisis.

Managing Director Christine Lagarde said at a news conference that the IMF has made $130 million available to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and that the IMF and other international agencies stood ready to do more.

"If more is needed, it will be there," Lagarde said.

In addition to the $130 million in interest-free loans being provided by the IMF, the World Bank is providing $400 million for the Ebola efforts.

In its closing statement, the World Bank policy committee said that "swift and coordinated action and financial support are critical to contain" the Ebola crisis.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said that a Thursday meeting sponsored by the bank to highlight the funding needs was useful, but he stressed that the situation remained critical. "We call on all countries that are watching. If you have any sense that you want to help with this epidemic, do it now," Kim told reporters at a closing news conference.

International relief agencies stressed that time was critical.

"The speed and amount of governments' pledges will make the difference between Ebola containment or pandemic," said Nicolas Mombrial, an official with Oxfam.

The IMF and World Bank meetings were preceded by talks among finance ministers and central bank presidents of the Group of 20 nations, which comprise 85 percent of the global economy. Those discussions focused on the recent growth slowdown and troubling signs that some countries in Europe could be close to another recession.

In a comment clearly aimed at Germany, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told finance ministers that European countries with "external surpluses and fiscal flexibility" needed to do more to address weakness in demand that was holding back growth.

Germany, Europe's largest economy, ran a large trade surplus last year.

Lew also called on China, now the world's second-largest economy, and Japan, No. 3, to make the necessary policy adjustments to increase their own growth.

A string of weak reports on economic activity in Germany, the largest economy in Europe, jolted financial markets this past week.

U.S. stocks ended their worst week since May 2012, and the market turbulence served as a backdrop for the finance meetings.

While Germany came under pressure at the meetings to move to support greater government spending to boost growth, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble insisted in his remarks to the IMF that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government still believed the emphasis needed to remain on reducing deficits.

He said that this effort "will make the economy more robust and shock resistant and thus contribute to improved global financial stability,."

Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is the chairman of the IMF policy committee, said that the finance officials had spent a great amount of time discussing the need to move more quickly to adopt structural reforms in such areas as entitlement spending, labor markets and taxes to boost growth and avert a prolonged period of weak growth.

"It will require some political courage and some degree of realism on the part of national legislatures, but it can be done," he said.

The finance officials also stressed the importance of the Federal Reserve and other central banks to communicate clearly their intentions so that emerging market economies have time to prepare their own economies and avert the shocks that were felt last year when the Fed first announced that it was thinking of starting to reduce it monthly bond purchases.

Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, delivering a speech at an IMF lecture series on Saturday, said, "We have done everything we can, within the limits of forecast uncertainty, to prepare market participants to what lies ahead."

In response to an audience question about the timing of the Fed's first interest rate hike, Fischer said, "If the world is growing much faster, it (interest rates) will lift off sooner and if the world is growing more slowly, then quite likely the lift-off will be later."

The widespread view is that the Fed's first increase in its benchmark short-term rate will occur around June of next year. This rate has been at a record low near zero since December 2008.

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Local law firm serving craft beer industry

Local law firm Bowditch & Dewey is hopping on the explosive growth of craft breweries in Massachusetts and across the country with the creation of a specialty practice focusing on the beer industry niche.

"It's a thriving and growing industry," said Bob Young, an attorney in the firm's Framingham office and a co-chairman of the new group. "In a lot of ways, they're facing issues that are common to a lot of startup businesses. One of the key challenges ... for the brewers is how to convert their passion and their skill of making beer into a viable business."

Overall beer consumption is down somewhat, but craft beer sales have been growing by double digits. The market represented $14.3 billion of the total 
$100 billion beer market in 2013, up 20 percent from the prior year, according to the Brewers Association, a Boulder, Colo., trade group for craft brewers, which it defines as small, independent brewers.

"There are new breweries in planning or coming online at an astounding rate," Young said.

Bowditch & Dewey will tap 10 to 12 attorneys from offices in Framingham, Boston and Worcester to address corporate formation, real estate, environmental, employment, insurance and licensing issues in the heavily regulated industry.

"Employment issues come to the fore quite quickly as the business evolves from a couple of buddies in the basement to rented or even owned space with a 200-
barrel tank producing mass quantities of product," Young said.

Young and his firm already have represented craft brewers, including San Francisco's Anchor Brewing in a non-compete case brought against it and an employee this year by Boston's Harpoon Brewery. The parties resolved the case, and it has been dismissed.

The new practice also allows for a melding of personal and professional interests for Young, whose current fridge selection includes Morph IPA from Night Shift Brewing in Everett, some brews from Framingham's Jack's Abby Brewing and Allagash Saison from the Portland, Maine-based Allagash Brewing Co.

"I have long-considered myself an aficionado of craft beer," he said, "One of the great aspects of the craft beer movement, is it's really become more or less the equivalent of — at least in my mind — wine, where you have a glass with a meal, and the flavor of the beer can enhance the food."

Bowditch & Dewey's move is an interesting one, said Eric Hendler, who founded Jack's Abby in 2011 with his brothers. "Personally we haven't needed something like that as of yet, but … if an issue arose, it would be nice knowing that there was someone who had experience in particular to breweries," he said.

The small brewery — which expects to produce about 15,000 barrels this year and whose best-seller is an India-style pale lager called Hoponius Union — also is riding on craft beer's increasing popularity. "We've been fortunate that more and more consumers are giving beer a shot," Hendler said. "A lot of places that would not have considered us a year ago are now giving us a chance."

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Balky Suburban may have problem with low fuel pressure

I have a 1999 Chevy Suburban 1500 V-8. Frequently the car won't start. The engine turns over but won't catch. The odd thing is that there is a sequence of actions to get it to start that works every time. If I repeatedly crank three times and let it rest for two minutes, five times, it starts right up every time! No one has been able to find any reason for this to occur and why the solution works every time. Any ideas?

I suspect a lack of fuel pressure is the issue. Deposits on the CPFI — central port fuel injection — can "stick" the injection poppet valves. GM's Port Fuel Injector Gasoline Detergent or SeaFoam may help this scenario. In fact, GM warranted this condition for 10 years/200,000 miles.

Do you hear the fuel pump run when you initially turn on the key? It should run for two seconds and then stop if you don't engage the starter. If you don't hear it, have someone tap the bottom of the fuel tank with a rubber hammer as you crank the engine. This may "jump start" a tired fuel pump.

Monitoring fuel pressure with a gauge would tell whether fuel pressure comes up to the necessary 60 to 66 psi with the key on, ready to start. Other possibilities include a leaky fuel pressure regulator, fuel pulsator/damper in the tank, faulty fuel pump relay or low battery voltage while cranking the engine.

More on brake rotors

In response to my column addressing brake rotor warpage on a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee, here are a couple of interesting responses.

From Robert Grussendorf: I had problems with warping front rotors on my 2000 Chevy Z28. I switched to drilled and vented aftermarket rotors. That was the end of vibration when braking. I was told the drilled rotors do a better job of dissipating heat.

PB: The idea behind drilled and vented brake rotors is simple — better and faster heat dissipation. As I mentioned, upgraded rotors may well alleviate the repeated rotor warping. However, I'm not convinced that drilling brake rotors is the right answer. Maybe this is the result of my experiences in racing, but on the occasions where a rotor ended up cracking, the origin of the crack was one of the drilled holes. Vented rotors, on the other hand, are cast that way and less likely to be the source of cracking. Like I said, I may be somewhat biased here.

From John Seymour: My wife and I have a 2008 Cadillac DTS. We drive cross-country twice a year over the Western mountains. On the downgrades we developed rotor warp that was severe enough to make us stop at a dealership in Colorado. We were told to downshift, and we do that sometimes, even into second gear. I have never had to do this with any other car and it seems to me to be an under-designed brake system. Should we go to replacement rotors or is there something else we should do first?

PB: Regarding the Cadillac's warped rotors, I tend to agree that the long downgrades described are overheating the rotors, causing them to warp. Better aftermarket rotors may well help, but first focus on what you, the driver, can do to minimize heat buildup in the brakes.

In situations like this, try to use the brakes as little as possible and always focus on using them as briefly on each application as possible. Rather than applying continuous light braking while rolling downhill, try to rhythmically brake moderately for a short distance, then release the brakes to let them cool. And downshifting makes good sense, particularly with many modern automobiles that do not provide engine braking in "D" due to the overrun clutch on the output shaft. Engine braking is provided by manually downshifting to a lower gear. Allowing the engine to help slow the vehicle is in no way damaging to the drivetrain.

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Shift in kids' TV watching habits drives big changes to Discovery-Hasbro partnership

The seismic shifts in the way kids watch TV has led to major changes in the partnership between Discovery Communications and Hasbro in the Hub Network.

The kidvid channel that launched in October 2010 will be rebranded Discovery Family Channel as of Oct. 13. Hasbro's ownership stake in the channel will drop from 50 percent to 40 percent as the programming focus shifts to Hasbro-produced children's fare in the daytime hours and family-friendly fare in primetime.

Discovery group prexy Henry Schleiff will add oversight of the rebranded channel to his growing portfolio. Discovery exec Tom Cosgrove will serve as general manager of the Discovery Family.

The changes were sparked in part by the fact that the sides were coming up on the expiration of their original partnership agreement. With so much of kidvid viewing moving to VOD and SVOD platforms, the partners realized that a linear channel squarely devoted to kivid has limited growth potential. That reinforces how much the rise of on-demand options has changed the game for linear TV programmers in just the four years since the Hub was born.

At the same time, Discovery's research showed that the Hub attracts a healthy "co-viewing" audience of kids and adults watching together in primetime. With the brand overhaul, the plan is to program original series designed to appeal to multigenerational family auds in primetime. The partners see an opening for a channel that is consistently focused on drawing multigenerational viewers in primetime.

Hasbro, meanwhile, gains more flexibility to sell new and existing shows to digital outlets such as Netflix and Amazon. Kidvid is a huge component of overall viewing for the SVOD heavyweights, even though it doesn't get nearly as much attention in pop culture as original series aimed at adults.

Discovery bought out the additional 10 percent stake in the channel from Hasbro. That allows Discovery to consolidate the outlet's revenue and earnings with those of its 12 other majority-owned channels in the U.S.

Hub, which was a makeover of the former Discovery Kids channel, has been consistently overshadowed by its more established rivals, Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, but it is nonetheless a profitable venture for the partners, and those earnings will now flow directly to Discovery's bottom line as it will have majority control.

Discovery and Hasbro execs stressed that the decision to revise the terms of the partnership was done by mutual agreement in the best way to make the most of the asset. Hub Network has grown its subscriber base from 56 million cable homes in 2010 to about 70 million today. The channel makes most of its money on affiliate fees, so the hope is to grow the advertising side with broader-based programming in primetime.

"Hasbro is a world-class company with franchises and characters that appeal to kids and families around the world. They have been terrific partners over the past several years as we developed our kids television audience in the U.S., and we look forward to a continued strong collaboration as we evolve to the Discovery Family Channel together," said Discovery Communications' prexy-CEO David Zaslav.

The decision by Hub's founding president Margaret Loesch to step down by year's end also accelerated the makeover process. Discovery and Hasbro both recognized that they stood to benefit from modified terms.

"This was the result of conversations about the most important elements of our success and how to bring the strengths of each parent company to bear to move the channel forward," Brian Goldner, president-CEO of Hasbro, told Variety. "We saw the opportunity to build up the audience in the evenings and show advertisers that they have a great opportunity to reach adults and kids."

Hasbro-produced hits for the Hub include the toons "My Little Pony," "Littlest Pet Shop" and "Transformers Rescue Bots." Primetime programming will now be drawn in part from the Discovery vault of shows revolving around natural history, adventure and science themes.

For Rhode Island-based Hasbro, the Discovery channel is a the centerpiece of a content-focused strategy that involves feature films, such as the "Transformers" series with Paramount and the upcoming "Ouija" due out next month from Universal.

The toymaker is investing big in production through its Burbank-based Hasbro Studios arm. "We are continuing to develop partnerships with the big studios for some of our biggest brands," Goldner said. "And you'll see us developing movies with smaller budgets and strong filmmakers."

(c)2014 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

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AP Exclusive: California gives no-bid health pacts

LOS ANGELES — California's health insurance exchange has awarded $184 million in contracts without the competitive bidding and oversight that is standard practice across state government, including deals that sent millions of dollars to a firm whose employees have long-standing ties to the agency's executive director.

Covered California's no-bid contracts were for a variety of services, ranging from public relations to paying for ergonomic adjustments to work stations, according to an Associated Press review of contracting records obtained through the state Public Records Act.

Several of those contracts worth a total of $4.2 million went to a consulting firm, The Tori Group, whose founder has strong professional ties to agency Executive Director Peter Lee, while others were awarded to a subsidiary of a health care company he once headed.

Awarding no-bid contracts is unusual in state government, where rules promote "open and fair competition" to give taxpayers the best deal and avoid ethical conflicts. The practice is generally reserved for emergencies or when no known competition exists.

Covered California was created in 2010 and given broad authority to award no-bid contracts as a way to meet tight federal deadlines for getting the new health insurance marketplace operational by last year. The same law also exempted it from sections of the state's public records law, a loophole lawmakers closed last year after it was disclosed by the AP.

The agency confirmed some no-bid contracts were awarded to people with previous professional ties to Lee, but emphasized Covered California was under pressure to move fast and needed specialized skills.

The fledgling exchange "needed experienced individuals who could go toe-to-toe with health plans and bring to our consumers the best possible insurance value. Contractors like The Tori Group possess unique and deep health care experience to help make that happen and get the job done on a tight deadline," Lee said in a statement.

"As this organization matures," he added, "we will rely less on private contractors."

With so much taxpayer money in play, a government watchdog group said more oversight is essential.

Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause, said she recognized the need to free Covered California from cumbersome contracting rules that could have hampered its ability to meet Affordable Care Act deadlines.

But with tens of millions of taxpayer dollars at issue, "some accountability and transparency is needed, whether through audits or an alternative oversight body," she said, adding, "To spend $4.2 million on anything, let alone a contract to a friend and former colleague, raises serious questions."

The no-bid contracts represent nearly $2 of every $10 awarded to outside companies by the agency and were among roughly $1 billion in agreements disclosed to AP that the exchange executed from late 2010 through July, according to the records.

Through its first year of operation, Covered California was funded almost entirely by federal grant money.

The founder of The Tori Group, Leesa Tori, worked under Lee when she was a senior executive at Pacific Health Advantage, a small business insurance exchange that failed in 2006. Lee was a longtime chief executive of Pacific Business Group on Health, which managed Pacific Health Advantage, and Tori also worked with him at the parent company.

Long before it opened its doors to the public last fall, Covered California awarded a small contract to Tori for her advice on designing a program to sell insurance to small companies. The $4,900 agreement in late 2011 was executed without rival bids.

The deal would mark the beginning of a lucrative and far-reaching partnership between the agency and the company Tori formed about two years ago, just as national health care reform took root across the U.S. An initial $150,000 contract with The Tori Group in March 2013 was executed by Lee, but later amendments that increased its value to $4.2 million were approved by Covered California's board, an agency statement indicated.

Nearly three years after her first, small contract went into effect, she and employees at her firm hold senior-level positions and work on issues ranging from enrollment to health plan design at Covered California.

At least five other people who are contracted to work at Covered California have ties to the now-defunct Pacific Health Advantage, four of them at The Tori Group, whose employees are paid through the consulting contracts. In all, nine people listed on the group's website, in addition to Tori, work at the exchange.

Yolanda Richardson, Covered California's chief deputy executive director who reports directly to Lee, was a vice president at Pacific Health Advantage. Before she was hired on staff, she received a 10-month, $176,500 no-bid consulting contract from the agency in 2011, about a month before Lee came on board, according to the records.

Tori is Covered California's director of plan management. The Tori Group's chief financial officer, Kathleen Solorio, is Covered California's operations adviser. Another principal at the firm, Corky Goodwin, is serving as interim director of the small business insurance program; she was a senior manager at Pacific Health Advantage.

Tori said professional credentials qualified her company for the contracts — working in an exchange gave her team experience rare in the industry.

The Pacific Business Group on Health Negotiating Alliance, a subsidiary of the company Lee previously led, received two no-bid contracts worth a total of $525,000. Spokeswoman Emma Hoo said the work covers "unique and in-depth assessment of plan operations."

John Vigna, spokesman for former Assembly Speaker John Perez, who spearheaded legislation that established the exchange, said Perez was confident that enough checks and balances remained in effect, including oversight by the federal government and a state law that outlines rules for avoiding conflicts of interest.

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Ebola: How it spreads

Some facts about how Ebola spreads:

WHEN IS EBOLA CONTAGIOUS?

Only when someone is showing symptoms, which can start with vague symptoms including a fever, flu-like body aches and abdominal pain, and then vomiting and diarrhea.

HOW DOES EBOLA SPREAD?

Through close contact with a symptomatic person's bodily fluids, such as blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen. Those fluids must have an entry point, like a cut or scrape or someone touching the nose, mouth or eyes with contaminated hands, or being splashed. That's why health care workers wear protective gloves and other equipment.

The World Health Organization says blood, feces and vomit are the most infectious fluids, while the virus is found in saliva mostly once patients are severely ill and the whole live virus has never been culled from sweat.

The Texas Department of State Health Services said Sunday that a health-care worker who provided hospital care for the first patient to die from Ebola in the United States has tested positive for the virus. The worker, who was not identified, was wearing full protective gear while attending to the patient during his second visit to the hospital, according to a hospital official. If the diagnosis is confirmed, it would be the first known case of Ebola being transmitted in the U.S.

WHAT ABOUT MORE CASUAL CONTACT?

Ebola isn't airborne. Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has said people don't get exposed by sitting next to someone on the bus.

"This is not like flu. It's not like measles, not like the common cold. It's not as spreadable, it's not as infectious as those conditions," he added.

WHO GETS TESTED WHEN EBOLA IS SUSPECTED?

Hospitals with a suspected case call their health department or the CDC to go through a checklist to determine the person's level of risk. Among the questions are whether the person reports a risky contact with a known Ebola patient, how sick they are and whether an alternative diagnosis is more likely. Most initially suspicious cases in the U.S. haven't met the criteria for testing.

HOW IS IT CLEANED UP?

The CDC says bleach and other hospital disinfectants kill Ebola. Dried virus on surfaces survives only for several hours.

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Box Office Mojo returns after one-day absence

Without explanation, the Box Office Mojo site has returned following an absence of slightly more than a day.

The site vanished on Friday afternoon with the site redirecting users to parent Amazon.com's IMDb. It returned early Saturday evening but without any explanation on IMDB, Box Office Mojo or on Box Office Mojo's official Twitter and Facebook accounts.

When Box Office Mojo returned, Thursday's results were the most recent data on the site.

The Box Office Mojo site was acquired by Amazon in late 2008. Reps for Amazon were not immediately available for comment.

The free Box Office Mojo site has been widely used by the movie industry for up-to-date box office results along with historical data and release dates of upcoming titles. It was founded in 1999 by Brandon Gray and was acquired by Amazon in 2008, when it was operated in a Los Angeles office by Gray and Sean Saulsbury.

As its name implies, Box Office Mojo specializes in detailed coverage of box office numbers. IMDb provides cursory coverage of box office data, leaving out such information as the specific distributor, the number of theaters and international grosses.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Box office: 'Gone Girl' edges out 'Dracula Untold,' 'The Judge' with $26.8 million

"Gone Girl," "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" and "Dracula Untold" emerged relatively unscathed from a pile-up at the box office this weekend, while Robert Downey Jr.'s "The Judge" got banged up from the collisions at the multiplexes.

David Fincher's adaptation of Gillian Flynn's marital mystery was tops for the second week in a row, unearthing $26.8 million and bringing its total to $78.3 million. At this rate, it could surpass "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" ($127.5 million domestic) as Fincher's biggest commercial success.

Meanwhile, "Dracula Untold" exceeded pre-release tracking, sinking its fangs into $23.5 million across 2,887 locations. The story of how Vlad the Impaler developed a taste for blood arrives courtesy of Universal Pictures and cost $70 million to produce.

Younger crowds turned out for Disney's "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," as the $28 million production picked up a respectable $19.1 million from 3,088 locations. The low price tag means the film will likely be profitable.

That "The Judge" got made at all is a testament to Downey Jr.'s star wattage, but his power was not great enough to secure a strong opening for the court room drama. "The Judge" grossed a disappointing $13.3 million from 3,003 locations, lower than pre-release estimates which put it in the $16 million to 18 million range. The film was produced by Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow for $50 million, but struggled to find a place among older audiences who were lured instead to "Gone Girl."

Ticket-buyers seemed to enjoy the film, giving it an A minus CinemaScore. Its opening crowd was 85% over the age of 25.

"I'm hoping we settle in," said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of domestic distribution. "It's an audience pleaser and hopefully we can swing a little younger, get some good word of mouth and hang in there. We have to let it play one day at a time."

Perhaps the weekend's biggest surprise was Lionsgate and CodeBlack's "Addicted," which scored an impressive $7.6 million from just 846 locations. The low-budget thriller about a woman (Sharon Leal) who threatens her picture-perfect marriage by engaging in a series of affairs targeted African-American audiences and had been expected to make between $3 million to $4 million.

Among holdovers, "Annabelle" dropped 58% in its second weekend to $16.4 million, but the horror film ranks as an unqualified success for NewLine. It will pass the $100 million mark globally this weekend -- not bad for a picture that only cost $6.7 million to produce.

Also sticking around, "The Equalizer" added $9.7 million to its nearly $80 million bounty. At this rate, it will likely pull in $100 million domestically, only the fifth Denzel Washington film to hit that mark. "The Maze Runner" is also eying $100 million domestically, adding $7.5 million to its $83.8 million total.

In limited release, "St. Vincent," the story of a curmudgeon (Bill Murray) who befriends the boy next door, earned $121,054 in four theaters. Its $30,920 per-screen average will likely be the highest one for the weekend. The comedy, which was co-produced by The Weinstein Company and Chernin Entertainment, will expand to 60 theaters in the top 25 markets next weekend before going wide on October 24.

Another awards hopeful, Sony Pictures Classics' "Whiplash" picked up $143,503 on 6 screens for a per-screen average of $23,917. The film features Miles Teller as a musical prodigy and J.K. Simmons as his demanding mentor. Reviews have been sterling.

Journalism drama, "Kill the Messenger," which finds Jeremy Renner sans crossbow as a reporter who exposes CIA corruption, grossed $939,000 from 374 theaters. Focus Features is distributing the picture.

Overall, the box office was up more than 30% from the year-ago weekend, when "Gravity" topped the box office for a second week in a row and "Captain Phillips" opened at more than $25.7 million.

More to come...

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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