Zootopia has now topped $200 million in North America, and has amassed a significant worldwide total of $591.7 million, just a hair behind Tangled’s complete run total of $591.8 million. With no major competition for its target audience until Disney’s live-action Jungle Book opens on April 15, Zootopia appears to be a likely candidate to top $300 million domestic. Zootopia has already racked up the third highest total for a Disney animated film (not adjusted for inflation), and is clearly another major animated hit for the Mouse House.
The news is less positive for Lionsgate, which split the final volume of the dystopian Divergent YA novel series into 2 parts (the finale, Ascendant, is slated to debut in the summer of 2017), only to see the opening for the first half of the final volume, Allegiant, fall 44% short of its predecessor Insurgent. Insurgent did outperform the original Divergent film overseas by some $30 million, so there is some hope that Allegiant might be able to make up some of that lost domestic revenue overseas, but it is now quite clear that the domestic audience for the Divergent series is shrinking fast. Does this mean that the appetite for teen dystopian novels is waning, or just that the Divergent adaptations are running out of gas? Only time will tell, but so far none of the post-apocalyptic teen sagas has been able to come close to replicating the success of The Hunger Games.
Sony’s Miracles from Heaven, which stars the likeable Jennifer Garner, opened slightly above expectations with an estimated $15 million from just over 3 thousand theaters. With Easter coming up, this faith-based film, which managed an excellent “A+” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences, could hang around for quite some time, and is likely to be a solid moneymaker for Sony, since it cost just $13 million to make.
The J.J. Abrams-produced 10 Cloverfield Lane dropped 49.4% in its second frame, which is not a bad fall for hostage/monster drama. So far the movie has earned $45.2 million, and it should end up in the $65-70 million range, which would rank as a success for Paramount and Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions.
|
Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): March 18-20, 2016 |
||||||
|
Film |
Weekend Gross |
Screens |
Avg./Screen |
Total Gross |
Wk# |
|
|
1 |
Zootopia |
$38,042,000 |
3,959 |
$9,609 |
$201,807,497 |
3 |
|
2 |
The Divergent Series: Allegiant |
$29,050,000 |
3,740 |
$7,767 |
$29,050,000 |
1 |
|
3 |
Miracles from Heaven |
$15,000,000 |
3,047 |
$4,923 |
$18,557,053 |
1 |
|
4 |
10 Cloverfield Lane |
$12,500,000 |
3,427 |
$3,648 |
$45,176,639 |
2 |
|
5 |
Deadpool |
$8,000,000 |
2,924 |
$2,736 |
$340,941,383 |
6 |
|
6 |
London Has Fallen |
$6,894,000 |
3,011 |
$2,290 |
$50,089,820 |
3 |
|
7 |
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot |
$2,805,000 |
2,079 |
$1,349 |
$19,275,840 |
3 |
|
8 |
The Perfect Match |
$1,900,000 |
925 |
$2,054 |
$7,306,179 |
2 |
|
9 |
The Brothers Grimsby |
$1,400,000 |
2,235 |
$626 |
$5,912,670 |
2 |
|
10 |
The Revenant |
$1,225,000 |
935 |
$1,310 |
$181,161,538 |
13 |
2016’s top release so far, Deadpool, slipped just 26.9% as it earned an estimated $8 million and brought its domestic total to $340.9 million. Deadpool is now the sixth biggest Marvel-based movie and the eighth biggest superhero film of all time (not adjusted for inflation). It is also the second best (to Spider-Man) non-sequel superhero movie of all time, and in the next week or so it should pass American Sniper ($350 million) to become the highest grossing “R” rated movie in the domestic market.
Two genre films that got off to slow starts, the “White House Down” thriller London Has Fallen and the comedy/drama Whiskey Tango Foxtrot are holding up fairly well. London Has Fallen dropped 36.4% as it earned $6.9 million to bring its domestic total to $50 million, while Whiskey Tango Foxtrot fell 40% as it earned $2.8 million for a $19.3 million domestic cumulative.
Not faring so well was the Sacha Baron Cohen espionage comedy The Brothers Grimsby, while tumbled 57% in its second frame, cementing its status as a “certified bomb.”
Meanwhile Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is now down to 568 theaters, slipped under $1 million in box office earnings for the first time in its 14th weekend in theaters, but it was able to push its domestic record total (not adjusted) to a stellar $932.3 million.
Performing even worse than the long-in-the-tooth Star Wars was the Olympic gymnastics drama The Bronze, which stars The Big Bang Theory’s Melissa Rauch. Debuting at #22 in 1,167 theaters The Bronze earned just $421,434 for a pitiful average of $361 per theater.
Be sure to check back here next week to if Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is opening in over 4,100 theaters can topple The Hunger Games’ $152.5 million March opening record, which is something that Warner Bros. is clearly attempting with the heavily-hyped superhero team-up film.
