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Zootropolis tramples Allegiant at the box office

Los Angeles — Zootropolis continues to run wild over its rivals in its third weekend in theatres, stomping all over the launch of Allegiant, the third film in the Divergent series.

The animated Disney film featuring the voices of Jason Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin earned $38m this weekend to take first place once again, according to comScore estimates Sunday. It's now earned $201.8m domestically.


It stole the thunder from The Divergent Series: Allegiant starring Shailene Woodley and Theo James, which opened in second place with an estimated $29.1m from 3 740 locations.

It's a new low for the YA series based on Veronica Roth's novels, which both opened north of $50m, but not unexpected. Lionsgate broke up Roth's final book into two movies, the second of which, Ascendant, launches next year. And, like Twilight and The Hunger Games, it's not unusual for Part 1 of a 2-film finale to fall short of some of its predecessors.


"It's had mixed results in general, but it's also had great results so I can't really fault a studio for going with that strategy," said Paul Dergarabedian, comScore's senior media analyst. "It's like skipping ahead in a book. I think it's a strategy that may want to be reconsidered. But there are other factors — is the movie good? What are the conditions of the marketplace?"

Dergarabedian also noted that fickleness of the teen audience might be playing into the big drop from the previous films.

"They're chasing an audience that is very difficult to pin down," he said. "What might be cool to them one day isn't cool the next."

But while the future of drawn out YA franchises might be looking as bleak as the dystopias they portray, one genre that does seem to produce near-consistent hits is that of the faith-based film.

The latest entry, Sony's Miracles From Heaven, took third place this weekend with an impressive $15m. The film, starring Jennifer Garner and Queen Latifah, opened Wednesday. It's earned $18.6m to date, and cost only $13m to produce. 

It's no secret that there have been a slew of faith-based breakout hits, but not many of them have mainstream Hollywood stars on the level of Garner and Latifah.

"These films are a home run in terms of having modest budgets and an audience, but star power does make a difference," Dergarabedian said.

Rory Bruer, Sony's President of Worldwide Distribution, agreed.

"It has a faith-based core, but this movie is for everyone," Bruer said.

Rounding out the top five were holdovers 10 Cloverfield Lane and Deadpool with $12.5m and $8m, respectively.

The weekend overall was about on par with last year, but the 2016 box office is thriving, up 10.5% from 2015 — a number that is likely to rise when Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opens next weekend.

(Gif: giphy)



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