Weekend box office: Allegiant has lowest opening of the series and can’t beat Zootopia

Brad Sturdivant March 20th, 2016

Box office experts are slamming ALLEGIANT for opening significantly lower than the previous two installments of the Divergent series. If you look at it by pure weekend box office numbers, the first film opened with $54 million, the second came close with $52 million and ALLEGIANT took a significant dip with not even $30 million. So yes, ALLEGIANT is a disappointment, but the way I look at it, when you factor in how disinterested audiences seem to be with the series, $30 million doesn’t seem so bad. The films traditionally do better overseas, which is why Lionsgate is dragging these films out by splitting up the last movie. So even though they’re not setting records, they’re still making money. MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN also opened strong, passing $10 million on its opening weekend despite looking a lot like a Hallmark movie. But opening at the right time of year clearly helped its box office numbers.

Next week, we see the long awaited opening of BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. The opening of BVS will set the tone for all the DC movies going forward and will answer the question; do audiences care about DC superheroes as much as they care about Marvel? I’m anxious to see how it does and although it will clearly be the top film, I don’t think it will break records. But we’ll see. For those that aren’t interested in watching Batman and Superman fight each other, there’s MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 2, which is opening a mere 14 years after the first one became the indie darling of all time. The first one was fine, but I can’t imagine there’s anyone clamoring for a sequel. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.

1. Zootopia $40.5m

2. Allegiant $29.1m

3. 10 Cloverfield Lane $13.5m

4. Miracles From Heaven $11.9m

5. Deadpool $8m

6. London Has Fallen $6.4m

7. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot $2.6m

8. The Perfect Match $1.9m

9. The Brothers Grimsby $1.3m

10. The Revenant $1.2m

(Deadline)