‘Divergent’ tops box office, ‘God’s Not Dead’ and ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’ strong turnout
The blockbuster teen thriller Divergent opened strong, but far from a record, with Muppets Most Wanted disappointed with $16.5 in a distant second place. Two Indy films, God’s Not Dead and The Grand Budapest Hotel had very strong turnouts in small releases compared to the mainstream studio films.
Divergent opens with $56 million, just shy of the reported expectations of $60 million. Disney’s new Muppets film saw a soft opening and may not make a profit on the $50 million budget.
God’s Not Dead opened in just 780 screens and the Christian film scored an impressive $8.56 million weekend. That’s along the lines of the $9.1m debut of Courageous in 2011 and the $6.7m debut of Kirk Cameron’s Fireproof in 2008. That’s over $10,000 per screen, so expect a quick expansion to reach a larger audience.
Another big success is The Grand Budapest Hotel which earned over $22K per screen and nearly reaching $13 million total.
Son of God and Frozen exited the top ten for the first time since their release and Noah is the next big picture to land in theaters, opening on Friday.
Title/Weekend/Total
1. Divergent$56,000,000 — $56
2. Muppets Most Wanted$16,510,000 — $16.5
3. Mr. Peabody and Sherman$11,700,000 — $81
4. 300: Rise of an Empire$8,670,000 — $93.7
5. God’s Not Dead$8,560,000 — $8.5
6. Need for Speed$7,780,000 — $30.4
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel$6,750,000 — $12.9
8. Non-Stop$6,300,000 — $78.5
9. The LEGO Movie$4,115,000 — $243.3
10. Tyler Perry’s Single Moms Club$3,100,000 — $12.9