Box office report: Zootopia threepeats as Allegiant opens to series low
The third installment in the Divergent series failed to live up to its predecessors, clearing the way for Zootopia to spend its third straight weekend at Number 1.
The Shailene Woodley-starring Allegiant opened this weekend to an estimated $29.1 million, earning just over half of what the original Divergent did. The first film adapted from Veronica Roth’s young adult series opened to $54.6 million in 2014, and last year’s Insurgent fell slightly for a $52.3 million opening.
That kind of drop off isn’t uncommon for movie series, and The Hunger Games, Lionsgate’s other YA franchise, performed similarly, but The Hunger Games only fell about 23 percent between Catching Fire and the first Mockingjay. Allegiant dropped by almost half, which isn’t a great sign for the upcoming final movie in the series. Like Mockingjay, Lionsgate chose to split Allegiant into two movies, with part two, Ascendant, hitting theaters on June 9, 2017. The last book in Roth’s trilogy was fairly controversial among fans, and the first part of the movie adaptation has been savaged by critics, earning a 10 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Allegiant also earned a B CinemaScore.
As for our box office winner, Zootopia continued to trample the competition, exceeding expectations once again and falling only 26 percent for a third weekend of about $38 million. So far, Disney’s animated adventure has earned an estimated $201.8 million domestically, and its global total currently stands at $591.7 million. Domestically, Zootopia has already surpassed other Walt Disney Animation Studios films like Tangled (which tapped out at $200.8 million) and Wreck-It Ralph ($189.4 million), and if Zootopia continues at this pace, it’s poised to overtake Frozen as the biggest non-Pixar animated Disney film of all time.
This weekend’s other major new release snagged third place, as the Jennifer Garner-starring Miracles From Heaven earned an estimated $15 million over three days and $18.6 million since it opened on Wednesday. Sony’s Affirm label has had success in the past with similar faith-based films like Heaven Is For Real ($22.5 million in 2014) and War Room ($11.4 million in 2015), and Miracles From Heaven now holds the second-biggest opening of all time for an Affirm film. Directed by The 33’s Patricia Riggen, Miracles stars Garner and Queen Latifah, and it earned an A+ CinemaScore.
Outside of the top five, The Bronze also opened in 1,167 theaters, earning only $421,434 for a dismal per-theater average of $361. That gives the Melissa Rauch-starring comedy the fifth-worst opening theater average of all time (for a new movie in at least 1,000 theaters).
The rest of the top five belonged to holdovers 10 Cloverfield Lane and Deadpool. 10 Cloverfield Lane managed to hold off the traditionally steep second weekend drop for horror movies, falling only 49 percent for $12.5 million. Through Sunday, its domestic total now sits at $45.2 million.
Deadpool also added another $8 million in its sixth weekend for a domestic total of $340.9 million. The Ryan Reynolds-starring superhero flick is now less than $10 million away from overtaking American Sniper ($350.1 million) to become the second biggest R-rated movie of all time. (The Passion of the Christ still stands at No. 1 with $370.8 million.)
Jeff Nichols’ sci-fi adventure Midnight Special, starring Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton, also had a solid opening of $185,000 in five theaters for a location average of $37,000.
Here are this weekend’s top five at the box office:
1. Zootopia — $38 million
2. The Divergent Series: Allegiant — $29.1 million
3. Miracles From Heaven — $15 million
4. 10 Cloverfield Lane — $12.5 million
5. Deadpool — $8 million