There was a lot of speculation about how well Divergent would do, what with the trail of failed Young Adult novel adaptations that came after Hunger Games and the fact that Lionsgate was already setting into motion the sequel since they know you have to strike while the iron is hot with these properties. There’s been a lot of buzz among the fans, but it hasn’t translated into more mainstream buzz nor were critics kind (though I and the women and girls that went to see it completely enjoyed it) which lead a lot of people to expect it to tank pretty hard. With a budget of $85 million and only a domestic release at the moment, the film landed $56 million in its opening frame, which cements its future for at least the second installment as it adapts the Veronica Roth books. There’s obvious comparisons to Hunger Games and even Twilight, but the film is its own property and has its own audience with some crossover, so it did pretty well even if it couldn’t stack up to their box office totals.
And when compared to some other recent adaptations, it did in its first weekend what multiple films did combined in their first weekends. We’re looking at you, Vampire Academy and Beautiful Creatures.
According to the polling of audiences, it looks like only half of those that attended had read the books, so it’s not just the fans that were hitting it up this weekend either. It also split rather evenly with men and women and those over the age of twenty-five, which is a pretty good design to get as you’re hitting all audiences. Insurgent is scheduled for next March while Allegiant is set for March 2016.
Not doing so well though is Muppet’s Most Wanted, which had a change in creative team from the first, stars and also a shift from the previous Thanksgiving 2011 release to a March 2014 release. The film brought in $16 million compared to the first that did $29 million, which also had an early opening due to the holiday back in 2011. This film is facing a bit of ongoing competition with family friendly fare this year and especially with both The LEGO Movie and Mr. Peabody & Sherman still in the box office.
RANK | TITLE | DISTRIBUTOR NAME | WEEKEND REVENUE | CUME REVENUE | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
REVENUE | # OF LOCATIONS* | LOC AVG | ||||
1 | Divergent | Lionsgate | $56,000,000 | 3,936 | 14,227 | $56,000,000 |
2 | Muppets Most Wanted | Disney | $16,514,000 | 3,194 | 5,170 | $16,514,000 |
3 | Mr. Peabody And Sherman | 20th Century Fox | $11,700,000 | 3,607 | 3,243 | $81,002,384 |
4 | 300: Rise Of An Empire | Warner Bros. | $8,665,000 | 3,085 | 2,808 | $93,753,119 |
5 | God’s Not Dead | Freestyle Releasing | $8,563,512 | 780 | 10,978 | $8,563,512 |
6 | Need For Speed | Disney | $7,781,000 | 3,115 | 2,497 | $30,404,000 |
7 | Grand Budapest Hotel, The | Fox Searchlight | $7,000,000 | 304 | 23,026 | $13,210,519 |
8 | Non-Stop | Universal | $6,346,475 | 2,945 | 2,155 | $78,621,205 |
9 | Lego Movie, The | Warner Bros. | $4,115,000 | 2,501 | 1,645 | $243,351,674 |
10 | Tyler Perry’s The Single Moms Club | Lionsgate | $3,100,000 | 1,896 | 1,635 | $12,910,024 |
11 | Son Of God | 20th Century Fox | $2,650,000 | 2,139 | 1,238 | $55,599,648 |
12 | Monuments Men | Sony | $975,000 | 938 | 1,039 | $75,708,726 |