New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Recently, the $120 million Tom Cruise pic Oblivion opened two weekends behind Iron Man 3. It fell 52% in its second weekend, and then fell 68% against Iron Man 3. If your film is intended a blockbuster, and is being released ahead of a Marvel release, it needs about three weekends of room or it is going to get smoked and lose a ton of money. At this point I see Noah making about $100 million domestically, which means it will need at least $200 million for Paramount (who was formerly associated with Marvel), if they hope to see a profit. The good news is that Noah had already earned half that amount internationally. Domestically, Noah has pulled in $72 million.

Divergent is a close third due to the collapse of Noah. The Lionsgate film, which smartly went into theaters two weekends prior to the Marvel release, fares better, but it didn’t have Noah’s C Cinemascore to deal with. Divergent earned $13 million, off 49% compared to last weekend when it earned $25.6 million. Divergent may have even played as counter-programming to the Marvel behemoth. The YA franchise hopeful crossed the $100 million mark on Thursday, its 14th day, the same amount of time it took The Great Gatsby to reach the same mark. So far, Divergent has earned $114 million, and is still just getting started overseas. These numbers don’t scream franchise to me, but book sales have risen, in what may be curiosity from the core demographic.

God’s Not Dead is fourth as it moves up a spot from its fifth place finish last weekend. Obviously, God wants his flock to see poorly made movies, because God’s Not Dead pulled in another $7.7 million, a decline of only 13% compared to last weekend. It has a gross so far of $32.5 million. Paramount should have made Noah in a bathtub with Kirk Cameron in the lead (and no rock people) for about $10,000. It would have been huge.

Fifth is The Grand Budapest Hotel, which may have peaked last weekend on 977 screens, when it earned $8.5 million. This weekend, Fox Searchlight expanded to 1,263 venues, and the film earned another $6.3 million, off 26% despite a venue increase of 286. The Wes Anderson release will be with us for a while, and has earned $33.4 million so far. It is already Anderson’s third biggest, behind only The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom.

Muppets Most Wanted finishes in sixth as the bottom continues to fall out of its box office. This weekend, The Muppets earned only $6.3 million and dropped 44% from the previous frame. The $50 million Disney release has now earned $42.1 million stateside, and was under $10 million from overseas theaters, prior to the start of the weekend.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman fall to seventh after five weekends of release. The Fox feature, which cost $145 million to bring to the screen, earned only $5.3 million, off 42% compared to last weekend. It has crossed the $100 million mark at the domestic box office with a cumulative total of $102.2 million, as well as another $123 million coming from overseas.

Eighth is Arnold’s Sabotage, which after becoming his lowest opening ever last weekend, gets beat up further. Sabotage earned only $1.9 million and dropped 64%. The Open Road release has a gross so far of only $8.8 million.

Need for Speed finishes in ninth. A domestic flop, Need for Speed earned only $1.8 million to bring its total up to $40.8 million. In China, though, it’s a hit, where it has earned $60 million. Worldwide, Need for Speed has earned $172 million against a budget of $66 million.

Tenth goes to Non-Stop with Liam Neeson. In its sixth weekend, Non-Stop earned another $1.8 million and fell 54%. The $50 million Universal release has now pulled in $88.1 million stateside, and almost $100 million from overseas.

Overall, the box office his hot thanks to Captain America. The top 12 this weekend earned a healthy $160.5 million, well ahead of last year when the Evil Dead remake topped the box office. That weekend, the top 12 had six films finish the weekend with $10 million or more, and earned a combined $126.8 million. Next weekend, Fox releases Rio 2, Lionsgate puts up Kevin Costner in Draft Day, and Relativity releases Oculus, which has seen some strong early reviews.

Top Ten for Weekend of
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Walt Disney	96,200,000	New	96,200,000
2	Noah	Paramount	17,000,000	-61%	72,341,000
3	Divergent	Lionsgate	13,000,000	-49%	114,029,000
4	God's Not Dead	Pure Flix Entertainment	7,726,000	-12%	32,520,000
5	The Grand Budapest Hotel	Fox Searchlight	6,300,000	-26%	33,380,000
6	Muppets Most Wanted	Walt Disney	6,285,000	-44%	42,142,000
7	Mr. Peabody & Sherman	Fox	5,300,000	-42%	102,202,000
8	Sabotage	Open Road	1,908,000	-64%	8,767,000
9	Need for Speed	Walt Disney	1,836,000	-57%	40,839,000
10	Non-Stop	Universal	1,827,000	-54%	88,138,000
11	Bad Words	Focus	1,624,000	-37%	5,952,000
12	300: Rise of an Empire	Warner Bros.	1,445,000	-66%	104,003,000

Continued:       1       2       3