Cinderella opened huge this weekend, earning $70 million from Friday-Sunday, slightly above last year's Maleficent, and this one without the benefit of 3D ticket prices. This tells me that above all, it's the property itself that sells these Disney reboot movies, and it doesn't really matter one bit who stars in them. Cinderella got an "A" Cinemascore and played with an overwhelmingly female crowd, and it also had the benefit of being the first film in this new genre to get decent reviews, with and 85% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile, the Liam Neeson actioner Run All Night took second place with a weak $11 million, paling next to the $39 million Taken 3 just earned a couple months ago, although such a close release date to that last film might have had something to do with the low opening.
In third was Kingsman: The Secret Service, which, in its fifth week has crossed $100 million and is clearly benefiting from positive word of mouth, as it dropped just 25% from last weekend. Rounding out the top five was Focus and Chappie, each with about $5.8 million, but neither ended up being the breakout hits the studios would have liked, while in very limited release, the well reviewed horror film It Follows, opened on 4 screens with $40k per screen average, a strong debut for a tiny film, which has a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Top 5:
- Cinderella- $70 million
- Run All Night- $11 million
- Kingsman: The Secret Service- $6.2 million
- Focus- $5.8 million
- Chappie- $5.8 million
Next week we get to see how Cinderella holds up against the teen YA sequel Insurgent, and Sean Penn's The Gunman opens as well, although both are poorly reviewed, which may work in Cinderella's favor, as the one actually good movie playing in theaters right now. See you next time!
