- Box Office
World Box Office, March 14-20
There were no wild surprises this weekend as Disney's Zootopia took the top spot in both the domestic and international race for the third time in a row. At home officer Judy Hopps led the animal kingdom caper to another $38 million, down 26% from last frame and now at a domestic cume of $201.8 million. Zootopia is now having a 50% better launch than Frozen, which went on to make $400 million at home. It also pulled 5% ahead of Pixar's 2003 hit Finding Nemo after having stayed roughly on par with this undersea classic through last frame.
Overseas numbers were extremely strong as well, with the film taking $65 million from 49 markets, including another elephantine session in China. It capped its third frame in the Middle Kingdom off at $40.2 million, 33% down from last week but still more than doubling the take from its opening weekend gross. With a $179.4 million cume, Zootopia's cute and furry crime-stoppers overtook Kung Fu Panda 3 and Monkey King: Hero is Back to become the country's biggest animated hit of all time. It's global cumulative already sits at $395 million, and will continue to grow significantly in the coming month with key openings including wildcard Japan, where Frozen made $250 million, still to come.
Back on the domestic market, the biggest new offering this weekend was Lionsgate's The Divergent Series: Allegiant. The third and penultimate entry in the Divergent franchise took off to a series low with $29 million in its opening run at home. The first title made $54.6 million in its debut while the second launched with $52.2 million, putting this entry well behind its two older siblings. Part of the blame has been placed on fans' mixed reactions to author Veronica Roth's series ending book, Allegiant, as well as the decision to split the novel into two films despite the lack of a truly fanatic, blockbuster following that saw the formula work for both the Harry Potter and the Twilight sagas. It fared about the same overseas, taking $22 million from 78 markets. New openings in Mexico and Germany were worth $2.4 million and $1.1 million, while another strong showing in France brought the film's total there to $8.1 million. With a global cumulative of $82 million and a budget of $110 million Lionsgate will have hoped for a better return, but the film will almost certainly end up turning a profit.
Number three at the US box office was the Christian themed drama Miracles From Heaven, that finished its debut frame with a very respectable $18.6 million. This faith-based drama starring among others Jennifer Garner and Queen Latifah is an adaptation of the memoir of a mother whose daughter suffers from a debilitating intestinal tract disorder with no apparent cure that suddenly disappears when the girl falls into a tree hollow and sees Heaven. Miracles cost just $15 million to produce and is well timed to offer an alternative to the US's evangelical set as most of the country gets ready for a clash of comic-book titans.
Next week we'll see if Batman vs Superman will be more Man of Steel or Dark Knight Rises, and keep track of how much of the pie My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 manages to eat up.
Here's this week's complete Box Office chart:
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