‘Divergent’ justifies franchise plans

Young-adult adaptation Divergent hit the mark this weekend with its $56 million bow. Although less than that which the first Twilight or either of the Hunger Games films earned over their opening weekends, Divergent’s debut is nonetheless strong enough to justify Summit Entertainment’s plans to move ahead with sequels Insurgent (booked for March 2015) and Allegiant (March 2016). And a good thing, too – shooting on Insurgent has already begun.

Muppets Most Wanted landed in second place but failed to measure up to its predecessor. The family film stumbled out of the gate, grossing $16.5 million. Although no one expected Most Wanted to perform as well as 2011’s The Muppets, which enjoyed a $29.2 million debut, most pundits were predicting returns in the low $20 millions. Audiences awarded the film a “B+” CinemaScore grade, which means generally positive word-of-mouth should help it reach a total of around $50 million by the end of its theatrical run.

The number three and four slots went to holdovers Mr. Peabody & Sherman ($11.7 million) and 300: Rise of an Empire ($8.7 million), respectively. The weekend’s great success story, however, belongs to No. 4, or God’s Not Dead. The film about a young Christian college student who challenges his atheist professor raked in a great $8.56 million, the best debut ever for a faith-based movie opening in fewer than 1,000 theatres. The surprise hit could earn as much as $30 million in total, further testament (no pun intended) to the fact the Christian faithful is a demographic to be reckoned with.

Need for Speed continued to sputter, dipping 56 percent to earn the weekend’s No. 5 spot with its $7.78 million tally.

In the specialty realm, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel keeps on chugging merrily along,  adding an additional $6.75 million to its cume that now stands at just under $13 million. After a successful platform release, it will finally expand wide, to 800+ theatres, next weekend.

‘Need for Speed’ crashes at box office

Jesse Pinkman deserves better. Hollywood’s latest videogame adaptation undercut what were already modest expectations this weekend when Need for Speed failed to nab first (or second) place at the box office. Instead, the Aaron Paul-starrer earned a disappointing $17.8 million. Its debut haul secured the film third-place standing behind Mr. Peabody and Sherman ($21.2 million) and 300: Rise of an Empire ($19.1 million). The former enjoyed a solid hold from the previous weekend, dropping just 34 percent.  To compare, last year’s The Croods dropped 39 percent its second weekend in theatres, while How to Train Your Dragon also dipped 34 percent. Rise of an Empire took a fairly steep hit – suffering a downturn of 58 percent – but its overall cume remains respectable ($78.3 million to date).

With an “eh” CinemaScore rating of a B+, it looks as if Need for Speed will only continue to stall. Overall returns should tally out to south of $50 million. As for Tyler Perry’s Single Moms Club, it’s unlikely the film will even reach that benchmark. The prolific Perry suffered his worst opening yet with Club, which grossed $8.3 million. Prior to this weekend, Daddy’s Little Girls was Perry’s least-successful outing, having opened to $11.2 million in 2007.

Perry’s last few features (Tyler Perry Presents Peeples, A Madea Christmas) have also been disappointments. The films’ distributor, Lionsgate, has had a rough time of it recently: The company suffered losses on both The Legend of Hercules and I, Frankenstein as well. Let’s hope this weekend’s Divergent changes its luck for the better.

No such wishes are needed for Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, which continues to do marvelous business. This past weekend saw the comedy rake in an additional $3.6 million from 66 locations. The film will enjoy its largest expansion yet this coming weekend, when it will screen in 275 theatres.

Despite some streaming troubles for those who opted to pay for a Web version of the film, Veronica Mars can be called a modest success. The movie earned $2 million from 291 locations. With the continued and concurrent availability of VOD, however, it will be interesting to see how the movie holds in the coming weeks.

Here’s hoping the weeks ahead are kinder to Jason Bateman’s Bad Words. The actor’s feature directorial debut hasn’t gotten off to a boffo start: The movie screened in six locations and grossed just $120,000. It will expand nationwide on Friday.

‘Need for Speed’ to cruise into 1st place

Disney is expecting modest returns in the low-to-mid $20 millions for videogame adaptation Need for Speed this weekend, but those earnings should still be enough to propel the Aaron Paul star vehicle (pun not intended, we promise) to first place. The film has received terrible reviews (23 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), not to mention, movies based on or inspired by videogames do not have a great track record of success (see: Max Payne, Doom). Nonetheless, the fanboy fan-base is a faithful one, and Aaron Paul, fresh off the final season of "Breaking Bad," will no doubt draw many fans in his own right.

Tyler Perry’s Single Moms Club also opens wide this weekend. However, it will probably not take second place, or even third place. Those slots should go to holdovers Mr. Peabody & Sherman and 300: Rise of an Empire. Both films are expected to gross in the high-teens, while Club is tracking a little softer, in the mid-teens. Incredibly, Single Moms Club will mark director Tyler Perry’s 15^th movie since 2006. Nine of those films debuted to $20 million or more, although most featured Perry’s Madea character or opened over Easter weekend. Club fits neither criterion.

TV cult favorite Veronica Mars finally hits the big screen today. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, in which fans raised over $5 million, Mars will screen in 291 locations and via VOD. If everyone who contributed to the Kickstarter fund opts to see the movie in theatres, Veronica Mars could earn upwards of $2 million.

Ahead of its wide release next weekend, Jason Bateman’s feature directorial debut Bad Words opens in six locations in NY and LA. It will probably not beat or even meet the record-breaking per-screen average Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel achieved last weekend, although it may still enjoy a solid opening. As for Hotel, the feature expands to 66 locations and will likely take in $2 million or so.

‘300: Rise of an Empire’ dominates weekend BO

300: Rise of an Empire debuted to strong numbers this weekend, even if it failed to match the boffo opening of 300. The sequel raked in $45.05 million from 3,470 locations (compared with the first film’s $70.9 million gross) and can largely thank 3D ticket sales for its high returns: 3D screenings accounted for 63 percent of earnings. Thirty-eight percent of the audience for Rise of an Empire was made up of women, an uptick from 300, which drew a crowd that was only 29 percent female. Viewers of both sexes awarded the movie a “B” CinemaScore grade, which isn’t great, and may portend a significant drop in sales over the coming weeks. However, it’s likely the film will continue to perform well abroad. Rise of an Empire may have fallen short of 300 here in the United States, but it out-performed its predecessor overseas. From 58 markets, Empire reaped $87.8 million. Russia led the international crowd with $9.2 million.

The weekend’s other wide release, Mr. Peabody & Sherman performed to 20^th Century Fox’s expectations, though it was still a disappointment for DreamWorks. The update on the classic cartoon grossed $32.5 million. That figure is an improvement over previous DreamWorks films Rise of the Guardians and Turbo, but it failed to match the highs of The Croods and How to Train Your Dragon, which both debuted to over $40 million. Those who did purchase tickets to the film, however, seemed to like what they saw: Audiences gave the movie an “A” CinemaScore rating. That’s a good sign so far as positive word-of-mouth goes, and could help propel the film to an eventual cume of $100 million.

The weekend’s third-place slot went to Non-Stop, which added another $15.4 million to a total that now stands at $52.1 million. The Lego Movie clocked in next with its $11 million gross, a downturn of 47 percent. That drop in sales is the hit movie’s steepest yet, and is probably thanks to competition from Mr. Peabody & Sherman. Lego’s total is currently $225 million.

In fifth place, Son of God earned $10 million, off 61 percent from last weekend. So far, the re-appropriation of The History channel’s “The Bible” mini-series has earned $41.5 million.

Finally, the weekend’s most exciting box-office news comes in the form of The Grand Budapest Hotel. This latest outing for Wes Anderson broke the record previously set by Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master for highest-grossing limited live action debut ever (maybe it’s something in the directors’ shared name?). The Grand Budapest Hotel earned $800,000 in total, which works out to a per-screen average of a little more than $200,000 (the movie opened in four theatres, two in LA and two in New York, this weekend). Budapest will expand to 1,000+ locations over the coming five weeks.

 

‘Rise of an Empire’ to dwarf ‘Mr. Peabody & Sherman’

Seven years ago, CGI sword-and-sandals epic 300 took the box office by surprise when it opened to a wonderful $70 million. The Zach Snyder film, which set the March record for best opening weekend, would go on to earn over $456 million worldwide. 300: Rise of an Empire isn’t exactly a sequel, per se – interestingly, it covers the same span of time as the first movie – but, with a mostly new cast and a different angle on the Greek-Spartan conflict, it’s certainly a follow-up. The question is, will it match the debut of its predecessor? Unlikely. The novelty of Snyder’s signature style has worn off (although Snyder worked on the screenplay, commercials director Noam Murro helmed Rise of an Empire), as has 300’s mix of togas and action; thanks to the popularity of the first film, we’ve seen several copycut productions and spoofs since 2007. Nonetheless, 300: Rise of an Empire is still tracking strong. According to Fandango, the movie is out-selling G.I. Joe: Retaliation in pre-sales, which bodes well for a solid opening: G.I. Joe opened to $40.5 million last March. Also, let’s not forget, Rise of an Empire is screening in 58 markets overseas. Even if it fails to match 300 domestically, it could out-perform its predecessor internationally.

Gunning for second place, DreamWorks production Mr. Peabody & Sherman also opens wide this weekend. March has historically been kind to the animation studio: The Croods opened to $43.6 million in 2013 while How to Train Your Dragon bowed to $43.7 million in 2010. Many pundits are unsure, however, how Mr. Peabody & Sherman will perform. DreamWorks' last two productions, Rise of the Guardians and Turbo, failed to meet expectations and even lost money.  Sherman has so far garnered mixed reviews, and it faces stiff competition from the still-going-strong The Lego Movie. Fandango has the film tracking stronger than Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, which opened to $34 million this past September. 20^th Century Fox, however, is only expecting $25 to $30 million in opening-weekend business.

For specialty devotees, the weekend’s big release comes in the form of Wes Anderson’s latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel. Great reviews and a strong cast – Ralph Fiennes, Saoirse Ronan, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Jeff Goldblum, and cameos by Anderson stalwarts Bill Murray and Owen Wilson – should propel the film to high returns. Think somewhere south of his roundly loved Moonrise Kingdom, which scored the third-best per-theatre average for a live action film when it opened in 2012, but possibly north of Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou (2004), both of which opened in the low $20 millions.

Overall, the weekend’s box-office breakdown should look something like this:

1. 300: Rise of an Empire


2. Mr. Peabody & Sherman


3. Non-Stop


4. Son of God


5. The Lego Movie