"The Divergent Series: Insurgent" Crashes "Cinderella's" Ball at Weekend Box Office

[JamesG]

Weekend Report: Insurgent Surges to $54 Million, Gunman Bombs
by Ray Subers
March 22, 2015


The Divergent Series: Insurgent opened north of $50 million this weekend, which was easily enough to take first place away from Cinderella.

The other new openers weren't so hot: The Gunman bombed with $5 million, while Do You Believe? opened to a fraction of God's Not Dead's debut.







Insurgent opened to an estimated $54 million, which is nearly identical to its predecessor's $54.6 million on this same weekend last year.

While it would have been unreasonable to expect a Twilight type bump from the first to second installment, it did feel like this franchise had some room to grow.

Unfortunately, it looks like Divergent will wind up like The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, two young-adult franchises where there just wasn't a ton of domestic gains after the first outing (yes, the final Harry Potter set a high mark for the franchise, but that was a decade later with the addition of 3D pricing).



Insurgent's audience was 60 percent female, which is actually a slight uptick from the first movie's 59 percent share. That's ironic, considering how much attention seemed to be paid to positioning this as an action-packed sci-fi thriller (as opposed to a young-adult romance).

The movie received a solid "A-" CinemaScore, and should hold up decently in the coming weeks. A total north of $130 million seems likely.







Cinderella was off 49 percent to an estimated $34.5 million this weekend.

That drop is in between Oz (48 percent) and Maleficent (51 percent). To date, Cinderella has grossed $122 million.







In its second weekend, Run All Night fell 54 percent to an estimated $5.12 million. That's a better hold than A Walk Among the Tombstones, but it's still not all that impressive.

Through 10 days, the Liam Neeson action flick has earned $19.7 million.







Opening at 2,816 locations, The Gunman bombed with an estimated $5 million. That debut is essentially on the same level as early 2015 disasters Mortdecai ($4.2 million), Unfinished Business ($4.8 million) and Hot Tub Time Machine 2 ($5.96 million).

It also opened to a fraction of last year's Taken imitator, 3 Days to Kill( $12.2 million).



This subgenre has been dying a slow death in recent years. With the Taken franchise officially over, and The Gunman bombing the way it did, maybe it's time to officially call it a day here.

With The Gunman poised to lose most of its theaters heading in to its third weekend, look it to wind up with a final total in the $10 to $12 million range.







In its sixth weekend in theaters, Kingsman: The Secret Service eased 26 percent to an estimated $4.6 million.

Matthew Vaughn's well-received comic book adaptation has now grossed $114.6 million total.







Faith-based drama Do You Believe? opened to an estimated $4 million from 1,320 locations. That estimate assumes that the movie will earn more on Sunday than it did on Friday or Saturday, which would be very surprising.

In some ways, Do You Believe? was positioned as the follow-up to God's Not Dead: it's from the same production company, and is opening on the same weekend. Despite playing at over 500 more theaters, Do You Believe? opened to less than half of that movie's $9.2 million.



The string of faith-based hits last year — Son of God, God's Not Dead, Heaven is for Real — made it seem like reaching this audience was a cakewalk. Time and again, though, we've seen movies fail to replicate that success.

That being said, a $4 million debut is solid for a low-budget movie that was sold primarily with a grassroots marketing effort (as opposed to a hefty TV campaign).







Playing at five locations, Danny Collins earned an estimated $73,200 from five locations this weekend, which translates to a so-so $14,640 per-theater average.

Look for this to expand to at least a few hundred theaters over the next couple of weeks.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4047&p=.htm









March 20-22, 2015 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. The Divergent Series: Insurgent $54,025,000
2. Cinderella $34,492,000 / $122,041,000
3. Run All Night $5,115,000 / $19,722,000
4. The Gunman $5,009,000
5. Kingsman: The Secret Service $4,600,000 / $114,570,000
6. Do You Believe? $4,000,000
7. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel $3,450,000 / $24,125,000
8. Focus $3,300,000 / $49,403,000
9. Chappie $2,650,000 / $28,300,000
10. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water $2,350,000 / $158,794,000