Lionsgate’s Insurgent, the second film adaptation of Veronica Roth’s YA Divergent novel series, topped the box office with an estimated $54 million, which is almost exactly the same amount that the first film in the series, Divergent, earned in its debut exactly a year ago.  Unfortunately Insurgent didn’t get a lot of help from two other box office newcomers, The Gunman, which attempts to reinvent actor Sean Penn as an aging action star, and the Christian-themed Do You Believe?, both had disappointing debuts and the box office was down 7.5% from last year when Divergent topped the charts with $54.6 million.

There are several ways to read Insurgent’s flat opening versus Divergent’s debut.  Since Insurgent had the advantage of higher 3D ticket prices, it was expected to do better than Divergent, but Insurgent faced competition for its teenage girl target audience from last week’s winner Cinderella, which dropped just 49% and earned an estimated $34. 5 million.  Evidence of this competition can be seen in the fact that the opening weekend audience for Insurgent was just 60% female vs. 69% for Divergent, so Insurgent did lose some ground to direct competition.  Still Insurgent earned a solid “A-“ CinemaScore from its youthful audience (55% under 25), and could lure those Cinderella patrons in the coming weeks.

Overseas, Insurgent which cost $110 million vs. Divergent’s $85 million, earned $47 million overseas, where it was #1 in 66 of 76 markets.

Meanwhile Cinderella continued its strong performance, bringing its domestic total to $122 million and raising its overseas earnings to $131.1 million for a worldwide total of $253.1 million--a superb start for the $95 million production, which still has a chance to overtake 50 Shades of Grey ($163.8 million), which is currently the highest-grossing film in North America in 2015.

The Gunman is a slambang R-rated action film directed by Pierre Morel, who managed to turn middle-aged actor Liam Neeson from a well-thought-of supporting character actor to an action movie star.  While the Taken series, though fading, has remained popular, other attempts to create “geri-action” heroes have been far less successful.  With a weak $1,779 per-venue average, The Gunman has to be viewed as a bomb, and with a pitiful 14% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, this film will have to do exceptionally well overseas just to break even.

Neeson has had trouble expanding his action career outside of the Taken franchise.   He starred in the downbeat action film Run All Night, which opened below expectations with $11 million last week, and then dropped 54% in its second weekend as it earned $5.1 million.  While Run All Night is viewed as a box office disappointment, its second week take was still more than The Gunman managed in its debut frame, which is why the Sean Penn film is being viewed as an abject bomb.

Fifth place went to the remarkably “leggy” comic book-based 1960s spy film romp Kingsman: The Secret Service, which dropped just 26% in its 6th weekend in theaters, has been one of the surprise hits of Q1 with domestic earnings of $114.6 million and a worldwide total of almost $300 million.

Written by Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon, who wrote God is Not Dead, which opened on the same weekend last year with $9.2 million and went on the garner over $60 million in the domestic market, Do You Believe? could manage only $4 million in its debut weekend.  While it is too early to pass judgment on the box office prospects of Do You Believe?, the outlook for the film is murky at best.

Chappie, the robot saga from Neil Blomkamp, continued to fade as it slipped 54% and fell to #9 in just its third weekend in theaters.  The film is doing slightly better overseas, but has earned just $28.3 million domestically, which means it will end up as by far the lowest-grossing film directed by Blomkamp, who scored a surprising success with District 9 and then followed up with Elysium, which earned $286.1 million worldwide in 2013.

One of the under-the-radar hits of 2015 is the SpongeBob Movie, which keeps pulling inexorably closer to Fifty Shades of Grey, which it now trails by just $5 million dollars in the race to see what film will earn the most in 2015.

One film to watch out for is the horror film It Follows, which was originally intended for Video on Demand, but is currently in 32 theaters with plans to take it wide in the coming weeks.  With a 94% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, It Follows is a modern indie version of an old school horror film about teenagers who are pursued by a supernatural demon (after the teens have had sex) that conflates guilt and horror and manages to be both stylish and really scary.

Next week should see more change at the top of the charts as Dreamworks Animation debuts Home, yet another animated feature film targeting young viewers, and Warner Bros. counters with the raunchy R-rated comedy Get Hard starring Kevin Hart and Will Farrell.  Be sure to stop by here next week and see what happened.