Movies

Box Office Recap: ‘Insurgent’ Scores $54 Million

March 22, 2015

As predicted, Lionsgate’s YA sequel Insurgent landed at the top spot this weekend with a strong $54 million.

In comparison to last year’s Divergent, Insurgent earned just slightly below the first installment’s debut with $54.6 million. The sequel cost $110 million to produce, $25 million more costly than the previous, and sees the return of stars Shailene Woodley, Kate Winslet, Theo James, Ansel Elgort and Miles Teller. Octavia Spencer and Naomi Watts join the cast, and Robert Schwentke joins as the new director.

Last weekend’s victor Cinderella, starring Lily James, was dethroned as reining champ, sliding down to the second spot at the box office charts with roughly $34.5 million. Though it declined 49 percent from its debut, the Disney production has accumulated a domestic total of $122 million and $250 million worldwide.

Audience members, who were 60 percent female and 55 percent under the age of 25, gave the film an A minus CinemaScore.

“Our playability is incredibly strong,” said Richie Fay, Lionsgate’s distribution chief. “We’re seeing a few more males than we did on the first one, and we’re seeing an overall broadening of the audience.”

The weekend’s other wide release, The Gunman, picked up a meager $5 million in 2,816 theaters. Distributed by Open Road, the Sean Penn film was expected to debut with roughly $8 million. The modest results landed the R-rated film, produced by Joel Silver’s Silver Pictures, in fourth place at the box office, with a B minus CinemaScore from moviegoers.

“Obviously we had hoped for a little bit more,” said Jason Cassidy, chief marketing officer at Open Road Films. “It’s a tough market out there, and there are a lot of male-oriented action films, so it’s tough to penetrate.”

Costing about $40 million to produce, The Gunman was given a 14 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes by critics.

Debuting over the weekend, as well, was Pure Flix’s Do You Believe, which earned $4 million in over 1,320 theaters. The Christian film, directed by Jonathan M. Gunn, stars Ted McGinley, Mira Sorvino, Lee Majors, Cybill Shepherd and Brian Bosworth. With the Easter holiday approaching, the company is expecting “to see a little kick” as it expands in 100 theaters next weekend.

“We’d have liked it to open a little bit stronger, but we think that word of mouth is going to start to kick in,” said Michael Scott, co-founder of Pure Flix. “Leading up to the Easter holiday and being about the message of the cross, we’re going to see a little kick in the coming weeks as we head towards Palm Sunday.”

In third place is Warner Bros.’ Run All Night with $5.1 million, falling 54 percent from last week. The action thriller, starring Liam Neeson, has gathered $19.7 million in its second week in theaters. Taking the fifth spot at the box office is Kingsman: The Secret Service with $4.6 million, and a domestic total of $114.6 million since opening in February.

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