Weekend Box Office: Broken Allegiance

It’s not a surprise that Disney’s ‘Zootopia’ topped the box office charts once again, but the film actually performed even better than expected. Following suit with the ‘Hunger Games’ trend, the latest ‘Divergent’ movie opened below its previous installment. Meanwhile, Sony’s hasty attempt to push a ‘Big Bang Theory’ cast member’s big screen career resulted in one of the all-time worst crash-and-burns.

Zootopia‘ is now through its third week and theaters are still adding it to more screens. Now playing at 3,959 locations, Disney’s animated family flick only fell 26% in attendance this weekend. With an additional $38 million, it now sits with a domestic total of $201.8 million. Combined with the movie’s $389.9 million international total, it has a worldwide gross of $591.7 million.

Although the trending numbers for Young Adult adaptations have been on the decline for years, Lionsgate and Summit (the partner studios behind the ‘Hunger Games’ and ‘Twilight’ franchises) are still putting all their expensive eggs in that brittle basket. ‘The Divergent Series: Allegiant‘ opened lower than the previous two installments by more than $10 million. The first ‘Divergent‘ kicked off to $54.6 million in 2014, then ‘Insurgent‘ debuted just behind it at $52.2 million in 2015 (thanks to the random one-time use of 3D to boost ticket prices). However, ‘Allegiant’ opened with just $29 million this weekend. The studios even tried tricking audiences into thinking this was the final film in the franchise by neglecting to mention anywhere in the title or advertising that the final book in the series has actually been split into two movies. Internationally, where the ‘Divergent’ movies are better received, ‘Allegiant’ has grossed $53.4 million over the past few weeks. To date it stands with an $82.4 million worldwide total.

Sony’s second faith-based picture of 2016 saw a solid third-place debut. Produced on a budget of $13 million, ‘Miracles from Heaven‘ opened to $15 million from 3,000 locations. In addition to that, it rolled out to theaters on Wednesday, and that two-day head start resulted in $3.5 million, for a five-day total of $18.5 million. Leading into Easter Weekend, the movie’s numbers are expected to stay strong.

10 Cloverfield Lane‘ had a great second week. Movies of its sort tend to fall steeply over subsequent weeks, but the creepy thriller only slipped 49%. Another $12.5 million gives it a ten-day total of $45.1 million. Also, the film’s international releases kicked off this weekend and resulted in $7.2 million, giving it a worldwide total of $52.3 million so far.

Rounding out the Top 5 was the comic book movie that simply won’t go away. In its sixth week, ‘Deadpool‘ grabbed another $8 million, bringing its domestic total up to $340.9 million. Its international numbers have reached $389.7 million, for a worldwide total of $730.6 million.

Sony Pictures Classics attempted to launch a second-tier ‘Big Bang Theory’ cast member’s big screen career with the unadvertised comedy ‘The Bronze‘, but the effort completely backfired. Starring Melissa Rauch and playing on 1,167 screens, the flick could only pull in $421,434. The per-screen average reached just $361. Every other studio will now think long and hard about giving another ‘Bang’ actor a big break.

Opening less than $40,000 behind ‘The Bronze’, but on 1,162 fewer screens, was Jeff Nichols’ sci-fi thriller ‘Midnight Special‘. Warner Bros.’ decision to give the film a platform release appears to have been wise. The five-screen launch resulted in $184,000 and a $36,800 per-screen average. Here’s to hoping that it expands wide soon!

Weekend estimates for the controversial Lance Armstrong bio-pic drama ‘The Program’ have yet to be announced.

Top 10:

1. ‘Zootopia’ (Buena Vista) – $38,042,000

2. ‘The Divergent Series: Allegiant’ (Summit) – $29,050,000

3. ‘Miracles from Heaven’ (TriStar) – $15,000,000

4. ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ (Paramount) – $12,500,000

5. ‘Deadpool’ (Fox) – $8,000,000

6. ‘London Has Fallen’ (Focus) – $6,894,000

7. ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’ (Paramount) – $2,805,000

8. ‘The Perfect Match’ (Lionsgate) – $1,900,000

9. ‘The Brothers Grimsby’ (Sony) – $1,400,000

10. ‘The Revenant’ (Fox) – $1,225,000

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *