Box Office Weekend: Insurgent Surges, Gunman Lacks Caliber

With Young Adult fiction making good bank at the box office, it should be no surprise that the dystopian Divergent movies are moving along well with a first-place finish for The Divergent Series: Insurgent and an estimated $54 million to start the weekend right, even if critics are lambasting it. It is not getting as much flak as The Gunman; debuting in fourth with an estimated $5 million, the Sean Penn led action film may be brought to the theaters by the makers of Taken, but it is doing nowhere near the business of the Liam Neeson franchise, and its lack of reported budget is very telling.

Cinderella may not be first this time around, but a second-place estimate of $34.5 million is not looking shabby for the Kenneth Branagh-directed fairy tale, doing good box office here and abroad. Run All Night, on the other hand, with a second weekend estimate of $5.1 million, is failing to make back even its $50 million costs. Kingsman: The Secret Service pulled out of its rough start and despite only an estimated $4.6 million, pulled in enough worldwide to look good on paper…a far cry better than the audience-approved but critic-burned Do You Believe? While hosting a bevy of well-known stars, the faith-based film pulled in an estimated $4 million…and while an unreported budget is not necessarily a disaster, considering the low budget of previous similar films, it does not bode well for its future at the box office.

Reporting its budget at last, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel turns out to be, as expected, roughly the same $10 million cost as the previous film, but not quite as popular. Still, at an estimated $3.5 million for the weekend and $24.1 million in domestic income, it is by no means a loser, but considering the worldwide $100+ million of the first film, it is probably a comparative disappointment. So, too, are Focus and Chappie; with an estimated weekend take of $3.3 million and $2.7 million respectively, both are weak domestically and may have to rely squarely on overseas money to do well, but the star power involved probably has investors wishing they had done better. Granted, with worldwide money Focus has made its money back while Chappie has not, but after the monumental After Earth debacle Will Smith’s star seems to have tarnished a bit.

Finally, in tenth, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water sits at the bottom, but remains the best performer in the domestic top ten, an estimated $2.4 million contributing to a fine $158.8 million in total…a reminder that last can sometimes be first, at least when it comes to the movies.

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Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."

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