Monday, September 22, 2014

‘The Maze Runner’ finishes first

It doesn’t look as if Hollywood will forgo churning out young adult adaptations anytime soon. The latest hit to enter the ranks of adolescent-targeted features is The Maze Runner, which opened stronger than expected. The flick raked in $32.5 million from 3,604 locations, earning back nearly the entirety of its $34 million budget over a single weekend. Twentieth Century Fox is certainly pleased with the film’s performance: The studio has already greenlit a sequel, The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials, which is slated for a September 18, 2015 release.

Thanks to its male protagonist and a marketing campaign that focused on Runner’s action sequences, the movie skewed more male (49 percent) than previous YA adaptations. The guys and their female counterparts awarded The Maze Runner a CinemaScore grade of an A-, which bodes well for the rest of the film’s time in theatres. If Runner’s hold does prove relatively secure, it could wind up with a total several million shy of $100 million.

As expected, A Walk Among the Tombstones took second place, although its second-string haul was less than predicted. The latest Liam Neeson crime vehicle grossed $13.1 million, or more than 50 percent less than the actor’s recent Non-Stop. The mostly older crowd (77 percent over 25) that did turn out for the film left feeling lukewarm – audiences awarded the movie a CinemaScore grade of a B-. With upcoming, stiff competition from The Equalizer starring Denzel Washington, Tombstones is poised to fade rather quickly. In total, it may wind up grossing around $40 million.

This Is Where I Leave You also failed to meet already modest expectations. The dramedy with a marquee cast only did $11.9 million worth of business for a third-place standing. The film, unsurprisingly, skewed older (86 percent over 25) and female (63 percent). Viewers deemed the feature worthy of a B+. Look for Leave You to tally out to a total in the $30 to $40 million range.

Fourth and fifth place went to last weekend’s No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. No Good Deed dropped 58 percent to earn $10.2 million, while Dolphin Tale 2 took a dip of 43 percent to rake in $9 million for the weekend.

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