Birds land at top of pecking order

Former angry bird Matilda and the cynical Red are among the stars of Columbia’s The Angry Birds Movie. It came in first at last weekend’s box office and made about $38 million.
Former angry bird Matilda and the cynical Red are among the stars of Columbia’s The Angry Birds Movie. It came in first at last weekend’s box office and made about $38 million.

LOS ANGELES -- Captain America and Iron Man found their match at the weekend box office in a group of furious fowl.

Columbia's The Angry Birds Movie dethroned Captain America: Civil War, the comic book mashup from Disney's Marvel Studios, while new releases Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising from Universal and Warner Bros.' The Nice Guys found themselves relatively close behind.

Angry Birds pulled in about $38 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters. "It's a huge success already," said Rory Bruer, Columbia's distribution chief. "The movie is playing well everywhere."

The $73 million film is adapted from the popular video game of the same name first released by Rovio, a Finnish company, in 2009. Actors Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride and Maya Rudolph, among others, lend their voices to some of the feathered friends with a temper.

Audiences and critics appear split on the picture. Moviegoers gave it a respectable B-plus grade, according to polling firm CinemaScore, but only 42 percent of critics on Rotten Tomatoes ranked it favorably.

Columbia always felt very confident that this was a movie that was going to work with audiences, Bruer said.

"Rovio, in regards to the love of the game and its DNA being worldwide, did great at coming up with the right story," he said.

In second place was Captain America, which, in its third week, added about $33 million to its stellar run.

The comic book mashup also passed the $1 billion global box office mark (currently sitting at $1.1 billion), becoming the 19th highest-grossing movie to date globally. It has now trumped The Dark Knight, Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace and Jurassic Park among others.

Universal's Neighbors 2 landed in the third spot with about $22 million, well below analysts' $35 million expectations. Such a performance is also well below its predecessor's $49 million debut in 2014.

In the first Neighbors, Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne played a couple navigating parenthood while battling a fraternity led by Zac Efron. Rogen, Byrne and Efron reprise their roles for the follow-up, in which the couple this time face off with a sorority, led by series newcomer Chloe Grace Moretz, that moves in next door.

The original amassed $150 million domestically and $120 million internationally. As for the second film in the franchise, which cost $35 million to make, its future is uncertain.

Comedy sequels are often a gamble, as evidenced by flops such as Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and Zoolander 2, but the studio hopes the feminine focus, relatively positive reviews and the return of director Nicholas Stoller will help draw crowds.

Audiences and critics have reported favoring the flick. It received a B CinemaScore and a 61 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Neighbors 2 has grossed an estimated $30 million internationally to date.

The Nice Guys, another new release, took fourth place with $11.2 million, surpassing analyst projections of $10 million.

The R-rated film stars Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling as a pair of detectives who uncover a vast conspiracy while investigating the death of a porn star in Los Angeles. It was directed and co-written by Lethal Weapon writer Shane Black and produced by The Matrix's Joel Silver.

Movie critics led the way with overwhelmingly positive responses to the noir-style thriller -- 90 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics liked the film. Audiences also weren't disappointed, as they gave it a B-minus CinemaScore.

Disney's The Jungle Book took home the fifth spot in its sixth week in theaters. The adapted Rudyard Kipling tale added about $11 million for a domestic gross to date of about $327 million. It has taken in about $857.7 million globally.

Today, the cineplex will get even more crowded as Disney's Alice Through the Looking Glass and Fox's X-Men: Apocalypse battle for the box-office crown.

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 comScore:

  1. The Angry Birds Movie, Columbia, $38,155,177, 3,932 locations, $9,704 average, $38,155,177, one week.

  2. Captain America: Civil War, Disney, $32,939,739, 4,226 locations, $7,795 average, $347,215,892, three weeks.

  3. Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Universal, $21,760,405, 3,384 locations, $6,430 average, $21,760,405, one week.

  4. The Nice Guys, Warner Bros., $11,203,270, 2,865 locations, $3,910 average, $11,203,270, one week.

  5. The Jungle Book, Disney, $10,944,350, 3,460 locations, $3,163 average, $327,424,915, six weeks.

  6. Money Monster, Sony, $7,016,884, 3,104 locations, $2,261 average, $27,040,531, two weeks.

  7. The Darkness, High Top Releasing, $2,272,618, 1,769 locations, $1,285 average, $8,370,100, two weeks.

  8. Zootopia, Disney, $1,683,982, 1,377 locations, $1,223 average, $334,384,510, 12 weeks.

  9. The Huntsman: Winter's War, Universal, $1,209,045, 1,246 locations, $970 average, $46,687,735, five weeks.

  10. Mother's Day, Open Road, $1,139,283, 1,719 locations, $663 average, $31,313,005, four weeks.

  11. Barbershop: The Next Cut, Warner Bros., $843,007, 744 locations, $1,133 average, $52,712,437, six weeks.

  12. The Meddler, Sony Pictures Classics, $782,883, 464 locations, $1,687 average, $2,048,804, five weeks.

  13. The Boss, Universal, $653,535, 672 locations, $973 average, $62,257,005, seven weeks.

  14. Love & Friendship, Roadside Attractions, $559,821, 47 locations, $11,911 average, $758,154, two weeks.

  15. Keanu, Warner Bros., $522,305, 707 locations, $739 average, $20,005,655, four weeks.

  16. The Man Who Knew Infinity, IFC Films, $495,694, 270 locations, $1,836 average, $1,627,021, six weeks.

  17. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, Universal, $389,720, 365 locations, $1,068 average, $59,573,085, nine weeks.

  18. The Lobster, A24, $389,083, 24 locations, $16,212 average, $1,040,077, two weeks.

  19. Sing Street, The Weinstein Co., $347,375, 520 locations, $668 average, $2,487,120, six weeks.

  20. A Bigger Splash, Fox Searchlight, $329,210, 128 locations, $2,572 average, $778,983, three weeks.

MovieStyle on 05/27/2016

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