Disney’s live-action spin on its animated classic of Cinderella scored a stellar $70.1 million at the domestic box office this weekend in over 3,845 theaters.
The $95 million-produced adaptation, starring Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter and Richard Madden, earned a massive $132.5 worldwide, scoring $25 million from China alone. Audience members, who were 68 percent female, 66 percent families and 31 percent under the age of 12, gave the film an A CinemaScore. Critics were fond of the movie, as well, giving it a healthy 84 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“From a company perspective and a public perspective, fairy tales are a part of our DNA,” said Dave Hollis, Disney’s distribution chief. “This is decidedly something that Disney does and does well.”
Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella marks the No. 6 March opening of all time, as well as ranking as Disney’s third-best debut. The princess fairy tale folllows after Alice in Wonderland ($116.1 million) and Oz the Great and Powerful ($79.1 million), but ahead of Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent ($69.4 million).
“The challenge in marketing the movie was that there was no twist, unlike Maleficent or Oz,” said Hollis. “We were rolling out the quintessential version of the classic story. The danger was that people could say, ‘I already know what the story is,’ but the marketing team brought to the market creative materials that did an incredible job of creating a sense of urgency.”
Coming in second is Liam Neeson’s action-adventure Run All Night, which debuted with a dismal $11 million from 3,171 theaters, lower than the $15 million range analysts previously predicted. The $50 million-produced film was given an A minus CinemaScore from moviegoers, and a 59 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics.
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the feature surprisingly appealed heavily on females with 52 percent present in the audience, while 86 percent over the age of 25. Warner Bros. domestic distribution chief Dan Fellman said he expected the film to attract more males, the ones who would be uninterested in seeing Cinderella.
“That’s what we’ll have to figure out Monday morning, why more men didn’t turn out,” said Fellman. “Overall, I wish we would have done a little better but we had great exit scores, so I am hoping we will have legs.”
Capturing the third spot at the box office is holdover Kingsman: The Secret Service, which has officially crossed the $100 million mark. The Matthew Vaughn-directed comic book adaptation gathered $6.2 million, pushing its domestic haul to $107.4 million. Following in fourth place is Will Smith’s heist romance Focus with $5.8 million. The Warner Bros. film has accumulated $44 million after three weeks in theaters.
The majority of box office experts are showing The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in fifth place with $5.7 million, however Sony’s estimates have Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie tying with Focus with roughly $5.8 million.
Now in its second weekend, Chappie grossed $13.6 million overseas for a worldwide accumulation of $56.7 million.
Top 10 Films at Weekend Box Office: March 13-15
- Cinderella — $70.1 million
- Run All Night — $11 million
- Kingsman: The Secret Service — $6.2 million
- Focus — $5.8 million
- Chappie — $5.75 million
- The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel — $5.7 million
- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water — $4.1 million
- McFarland, USA — $3.7 million
- American Sniper — $2.9 million
- The DUFF — $2.9 million
