Dystopian thriller Divergent, the story of a society that divides people based on personality traits, dominated weekend movie charts with $56 million in US and Canadian ticket sales, kicking off a new franchise for Hunger Games producer Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.
Walt Disney Co. family comedy Muppets Most Wanted finished second, nabbing $16.5 million from Friday through Sunday, according to estimates provided by Rentrak. Animated Mr Peabody & Sherman, produced by DreamWorks Animation Inc., took the No. 3 slot with $11.7 million.
Divergent is adapted from a popular series of young adult novels by newcomer author Veronica Roth. Ahead of the weekend, forecasters had predicted the film would debut with between $50 million and $68 million in North American (US and Canadian) ticket sales.
Shailene Woodley stars in Divergent as Tris Prior, a teenager who does not fit in to a faction because she has multiple dominant personality traits, making her a threat to the government.
She chooses to join the Dauntless faction of warriors who defend the society’s inhabitants. British actor Theo James plays Four, Tris’s mentor and love interest.
The debut of Divergent fell short of the box-office heights of two other young adult franchises. Hunger Games started with a massive $152.5 million in March 2012 while Twilight opened with $69.6 million in November 2008.
Lions Gate said Friday it was confident Divergent would become an important franchise for the company and it was moving ahead with the second film in the series, called Insurgent, which will reach theatres in March 2015.
Noting that the Divergent opening was shy of blockbusters Hunger Games and Twilight, Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co., said: “$56 million is a great opening for any film, and virtually locked down the proposed trilogy.”
“This is something to build on for the series, and with the cast expected to be in high demand, the Divergent legacy will continue to grow,” Bock added.
The movie’s A+ CinemaScore grade from the under-18 audience bodes well for the coming weeks as spring break and Easter school holidays approach, Fay said, noting: “The young adult audience has been underserved in the last couple of weeks.”
The company spent $85 million to produce Divergent, plus $40 million to $45 million on marketing, according to a person with knowledge of the film’s budget. The studio has recouped about $70 million of the cost through international licensing deals, the person said.
Muppets Most Wanted, a sequel to a 2011 Muppets movie, stars Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey and Ty Burrell alongside Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog and other Muppet characters. In the new film, Kermit is imprisoned in a Russian gulag in a case of mistaken identity, while an evil impostor travels with his muppet friends on a European tour. Mr Peabody and Sherman brought its global sales in three weekends to $172 million. The movie was distributed by 20th Century Fox.