The third entry in the Divergent franchise opened soft this weekend with just 29 million, a 50 percent drop from the last entry, which had already debuted with less than the first. This movie got a horrid 10 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and clearly is an example of either fatigue with the genre itself or just a sign that fans of this particular series are few. Not good news for the fourth film next year, which was as always, an unnecessary splitting of the final book. Meanwhile, that cleared the way for Zootopia to stay in first, as it fell a tiny 25 percent from last week and pulled in another 38 million as it cruises past 200 million and looks well on its way to finish with over 300. That would be a first for an animated film to come out in the first quarter of the year, and its global gross is approaching 600 million in record time, with still some big markets left to open in, like Japan. It may end up overtaking Frozen as the biggest Disney film of all time at this rate.
Jennifer Garner's faith-based Miracles From Heaven opened in third with 18 million, a good debut for Sony's Affirm label, which has been having success in recent years with faith-based films that clearly have an audience out there waiting for them. Holdovers 10 Cloverfield Lane and Deadpool filled up the top five, with Deadpool set to overtake American Sniper soon as the second biggest R-rated movie ever, although it won't catch Passion of the Christ, which remains in first with 370 million.
Top 5:
- Zootopia- 38 million
- Allegiant- 29.1 million
- Miracles From Heaven- 15 million
- 10 Cloverfield Lane- 12.5 million
- Deadpool- 8 million
In limited release this week, Jeff Nichols' Midnight Special did pretty well, securing a PTA of 37k on just five screens. Next week Zootopia's reign ends, as Batman v Superman finally comes out, after what seem like an eternity of hearing about it. It's tracking to open at 140 million, but the budget is about twice that, so this movie needs to make a LOT of money. We'll see if it can live up to expectations, or if it falls of a cliff the way Man of Steel did.
