Weekend Box Office (March 20 - 22, 2015)

by Sujit Chawla

THIS WEEKEND One year after Lionsgate launched one of the few successful young adult franchises the second film in the series, The Divergent Series: Insurgent, reconnected with pretty much the same audience the first one had. Other newcomers imploded on impact with only last weekend's champ Cinderella hitting double digit millions.

Opening almost identically to the original Divergent the latest in the series, The Divergent Series: Insurgent brought in $52.3M this weekend from 3,875 theaters for an average of $13,487, according to final studio figures. By comparison, Divergent opened to $54.6M from 3,936 theaters for a per screen average of $13,874.

This is a strong opening for the sequel with still two films to go to finish out the book trilogy. 3D surcharges certainly helped the numbers, as the first film wasn't released in the format, but with a CinemaScore of an A-, it looks like the audience who enjoyed the first film enjoyed the further tales of Shailene Woodley and company. Overseas the film brought in an estimated $47M from 76 markets, opening at #1 in 66 of those territories.

Falling 49% in its second weekend was the latest Disney live-action reinvention, Cinderella, which brought in $35M bringing its total up to $122.5M. Its drop was just about on par with last summer's Maleficent which fell 50.6% in its second weekend. At its current pace Cinderella should be able to break the $210M barrier domestically. Overseas the film grossed an estimated $41.1M bringing its worldwide total to $253M.

Third place belonged to Liam Neeson's latest "Taken but not Taken" film, Run All Night which brought in $5M, a fall of 54% from last weekend, bringing its cume up to $19.6M. A final gross in the area of $30-35M is likely, which would be among the worst of this post-Taken action films.

Opening poorly in fourth place was the Sean Penn-led The Gunman which shot up $5M as well from 2,816 theaters for a per screen average of $1,786. While Penn isn't known for opening a film, this has to be seen as a disaster from the perspective of distributor Open Road Films. Luckily the production budget of $40M wasn't high, but it'll be nearly impossible to even hit that low number. The CinemaScore was a B- showing that the few people that saw the film didn't like what they saw.

A third straight action film landed in fifth this weekend as Kingsman: The Secret Service took in $4.6M in its sixth weekend, bringing its total up to $114.6M.

Another new film debuted in sixth place with the Christian-themed Do You Believe? calling up $3.6M from 1,320 theaters for a per screen average of $2,721. The creators of this film were behind last year's surprise hit God's Not Dead which opened this same weekend in 2014 to $9.2M on its way to a strong $60.7M finale. It looks like Do You Believe? might be lucky to hit even one third of that number, but if the production budget was anything like the $2M spent on God's Not Dead, the film could still be pretty successful.

Holdovers took the remaining slots in the top 10. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ordered up $3.5M in its third weekend, bringing its total up to $24.2M. Eighth place belonged to the Will Smith starrer, Focus which took in another $3.2M bringing its total up to $49.3M.

In ninth place was Chappie which took in $2.7M this weekend for a total so far of $28.3M. And rounding out the top ten was everyone's favorite undersea sponge, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water which soaked up $2.4M bringing its total to a robust $158.8M.

The top ten films grossed $117.3M which was down 10% from last year when Divergent opened at number one with $54.6M; and down 8% from 2013 when The Croods opened at number one with $43.6M.


Compared to projections, Insurgent and The Gunman came in just under Gitesh's respective forecasts of $59M and $7M, while Do You Believe? came in right on target with Gitesh's $5M prediction.

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Watch the NEW trailer for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Get Hard and Home both open.

# Title Mar 20 - 22 Mar 13 - 15 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 The Divergent Series: Insurgent $ 52,263,680 3,875 1 $ 13,487 $ 52,263,680 Lionsgate
2 Cinderella 34,967,659 67,877,361 -48.5 3,848 2 9,087 122,516,793 Disney
3 Run All Night 5,032,323 11,012,305 -54.3 3,171 2 1,587 19,639,211 Warner Bros.
4 The Gunman 5,028,702 2,816 1 1,786 5,028,702 Open Road
5 Kingsman: The Secret Service 4,627,340 6,214,863 -25.5 2,223 6 2,082 114,597,783 Fox
6 Do You Believe? 3,591,282 1,320 1 2,721 3,591,282 Pure Flix
7 Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 3,510,008 5,686,043 -38.3 2,016 3 1,741 24,185,108 Fox Searchlight
8 Focus 3,244,355 5,739,006 -43.5 2,055 4 1,579 49,347,832 Warner Bros.
9 Chappie 2,663,291 5,703,935 -53.3 2,429 3 1,096 28,317,730 Sony
10 The SpongeBob Movie 2,394,978 4,023,185 -40.5 1,980 7 1,210 158,838,829 Paramount
11 McFarland, USA 2,197,381 3,604,989 -39.0 1,816 5 1,210 38,531,357 Disney
12 American Sniper 1,608,251 2,811,342 -42.8 1,456 13 1,105 343,969,003 Warner Bros.
13 The Lazarus Effect 1,375,470 2,846,943 -51.7 1,306 4 1,053 24,029,384 Relativity
14 Fifty Shades of Grey 1,311,520 2,863,875 -54.2 1,171 6 1,120 163,839,685 Universal
15 The DUFF 1,236,564 2,854,628 -56.7 1,437 6 861 32,439,572 Lionsgate
16 Still Alice 477,000 1,011,000 -52.8 440 10 1,084 17,258,000 Sony Classics
17 Paddington 428,889 701,829 -38.9 502 10 854 74,209,261 Weinstein Co.
18 The Imitation Game 371,527 665,205 -44.1 337 17 1,102 90,147,835 Weinstein Co.
19 It Follows 344,874 160,089 115.4 32 2 10,777 565,537 Radius
20 Unfinished Business 317,958 2,315,953 -86.3 597 3 533 9,982,284 Fox
Top 5 $ 101,919,704 $ 96,547,470 5.6
Top 10 117,323,618 115,580,190 1.5
Top 20 126,993,052 127,395,041 -0.3
Top 20 vs. 2014 126,993,052 137,214,017 -7.4

Last Updated: March 24, 2015 at 11:40AM ET

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