Insurgent takes over at box office

Maggie Q (left) and Keiynan Lonsdale star in The Divergent Series: Insurgent. It came in first at last weekend’s box office and made about $52 million.
Maggie Q (left) and Keiynan Lonsdale star in The Divergent Series: Insurgent. It came in first at last weekend’s box office and made about $52 million.

LOS ANGELES -- Young adults again proved their box office might over the weekend as The Divergent Series: Insurgent launched with about $52 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters.

Although the film from Lionsgate's Summit Entertainment topped the weekend rankings, it fell slightly short of the studio's initial forecast of $55 million to $60 million. Insurgent opened on par with its predecessor, Divergent, which debuted with $54.6 million last year.

Insurgent, which follows a young woman (Shailene Woodley) fighting for freedom and survival in a dystopian society, pulled in about $47 million in 76 international markets, bringing its total global haul to about $99 million. It was the No. 1 film in 66 markets around the world.

"We are in a very good place both domestically and nationally," said Richie Fay, Lionsgate's president of domestic theatrical distribution. "It looks like audiences like the movie."

The Robert Schwentke-directed film, which cost $110 million to make and is based on popular novels by Veronica Roth, averaged only a 34 percent positive rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes but earned a solid A-minus score from audience polling firm CinemaScore.

Fay said star power was the key to luring moviegoers. Woodley, who starred in the popular indie film The Spectacular Now and Alexander Payne's The Descendants, has proved her box office might, especially among young audiences.

In June, the teen tearjerker The Fault in Our Stars, starring Woodley and based on the book by John Green, opened in the United States and Canada with $48.2 million. It went on to make $124.9 million domestically.

Woodley's co-stars in Insurgent are Miles Teller (her love interest in The Spectacular Now), Ansel Elgort (her love interest in The Fault in Our Stars) and Theo James -- also rising actors in young Hollywood.

Lionsgate's marketing campaign included a Google hangout, social media fan interaction and a Snapchat-exclusive trailer. The studio also partnered with Samsung to create "Insurgent: Shatter Reality," a four-minute virtual reality experience that puts moviegoers in the world of the film with the stars. The feature toured the United States, including a stop in Austin, Texas, at the South by Southwest festival, and was available at more than 100 Best Buy locations.

The result: Audiences were young (55 percent younger than 25) and female (60 percent), although the ratio of males was higher than for the first Divergent film. Fay said that change was a result of Lionsgate's efforts to expand beyond the franchise's female following.

"When you have a core audience, you have to say, 'OK, where can we grow?'" Fay said. "We had a great Imax presence, which plays more to the male and fanboy audiences in general."

The film pulled in $3.6 million on 356 Imax screens in U.S. and Canadian theaters.

In second place at the box office: Disney's live action version of Cinderella fell 49 percent in its second weekend but still added about $35 million to its domestic gross. The film, which cost $95 million to make, has been propelled by positive word of mouth, reflected in an A-minus grade on CinemaScore. It's crossed the $120 million mark in the United States and Canada and has made more than $250 million globally.

Warner Bros.' Run All Night finished third for the weekend and added about $5 million. The film, which stars Liam Neeson as a hit man fighting to save his son, has made about $19.6 million since its launch March 13. The film cost about $50 million to make.

The Gunman, released by Open Road Films, flopped in its debut with about a $5 million opening, good for fourth place. The action thriller, which cost about $40 million to make, follows a former Special Forces soldier (Sean Penn) with post-traumatic stress disorder. It co-stars Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Ray Winstone and Mark Rylance.

Kingsman: The Secret Service rounded out the top five, adding $4.6 million in its sixth weekend. The film has made about $115 million domestically to date.

Faith-based drama Do You Believe? came in at sixth with about $3.6 million. The film is from the creators of God's Not Dead, which opened a year ago with a surprisingly strong $9.2 million. Though some religious dramas have found success at the domestic box office, Do You Believe? failed to draw in its target audience.

The film, backed by Pure Flix Entertainment, follows a pastor and a street-corner preacher. It stars Mira Sorvino, Sean Astin, Lee Majors, Cybill Shepherd and Ted McGinley.

The box office was down about 8.1 percent from the same weekend last year but is up 4.2 percent year to date.

This weekend, Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell's comedy Get Hard and the animated film Home are poised to provide solid counterprogramming for moviegoers.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Rentrak:

  1. The Divergent Series: Insurgent, Lionsgate, $52,263,680, 3,875 locations, $13,487 average, $52,263,680, one week.

  2. Cinderella, Disney, $34,967,659, 3,848 locations, $9,087 average, $122,516,793, two weeks.

  3. Run All Night, Warner Bros., $5,032,323, 3,171 locations, $1,587 average, $19,639,211, two weeks.

  4. The Gunman, Open Road, $5,028,702, 2,816 locations, $1,786 average, $5,028,702, one week.

  5. Kingsman: The Secret Service, 20th Century Fox, $4,627,340, 2,223 locations, $2,082 average, $114,597,783, six weeks.

  6. Do You Believe? Pure Flix, $3,591,282, 1,320 locations, $2,721 average, $3,591,282, one week.

  7. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Fox Searchlight, $3,510,008, 2,016 locations, $1,741 average, $24,185,108, three weeks.

  8. Focus, Warner Bros., $3,244,355, 2,055 locations, $1,579 average, $49,347,832, four weeks.

  9. Chappie, Columbia, $2,663,291, 2,429 locations, $1,096 average, $28,317,730, three weeks.

  10. Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge Out Of Water, Paramount, $2,394,978, 1,980 locations, $1,210 average, $158,838,829, seven weeks.

  11. McFarland, USA, Disney, $2,197,381, 1,816 locations, $1,210 average, $38,531,357, five weeks.

  12. American Sniper, Warner Bros., $1,608,251, 1,456 locations, $1,105 average, $343,969,004, 13 weeks.

  13. The Lazarus Effect, Relativity Media, $1,375,470, 1,306 locations, $1,053 average, $24,029,384, four weeks.

  14. Fifty Shades of Grey, Universal, $1,311,520, 1,168 locations, $1,123 average, $163,839,685, six weeks.

  15. The DUFF, Lionsgate, $1,236,564, 1,437 locations, $861 average, $32,439,572, five weeks.

  16. Still Alice, Sony Pictures Classics, $465,850, 440 locations, $1,059 average, $17,246,729, 10 weeks.

  17. Paddington, The Weinstein Co., $428,889, 502 locations, $854 average, $74,209,261, 10 weeks.

  18. The Imitation Game, The Weinstein Co., $371,527, 337 locations, $1,102 average, $90,147,295, 17 weeks.

  19. It Follows, Radius-TWC, $344,874, 32 locations, $10,777 average, $568,901, two weeks.

  20. Unfinished Business, 20th Century Fox, $317,958, 597 locations, $533 average, $9,982,284, three weeks.

MovieStyle on 03/27/2015

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