‘Insurgent’, ‘Cinderella’ beat the boys at the box office

LOS ANGELES — Dystopian thriller “Insurgent” blasted its way to top spot at the North American box office last weekend, as Sean Penn action movie “The Gunman” fired a blank, data showed Monday.

The second big-screen adaptation based on Veronica Roth’s best-selling “Divergent” trilogy, “Insurgent” opened with $52.3 million according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The film stars rising talent Shailene Woodley as the youthful heroine Beatrice Prior battling a powerful alliance threatening her world in a post-apocalyptic Chicago.

Many predicted a bit of growth for this second film, which sees the return of stars Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Kate Winslet to author Veronica Roth’s dystopian world. But, both distributor Lionsgate and box office analysts see the consistency as a good thing.

“We’re extremely pleased with the outcome,” said Lionsgate’s President of Domestic Distribution Richie Fay.

“I think this is exactly where we thought we’d be,” he added. “We attracted a few more males this time around, and I think we’re headed in the right direction. The uptick from Friday to Saturday was considerably higher than it was for ‘Divergent.’ That, the A- CinemaScore and what’s coming into the marketplace will allow us to grow very nicely.”

According to Lionsgate, 60 per cent of audiences were female.

Rentrak’s Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian credits Lionsgate’s consistent release date strategy and impressive marketing campaign for the strong repeat performance.

“It’s really about driving a very fickle audience, that teen, YA — whatever you want to call them — they’re really tough to get a handle on. Their tastes change like the wind,” he said. “The key is keeping the young adult audience engaged, excited and enthusiastic.”

The opening numbers for “Insurgent” relegated Disney’s live action “Cinderella” remake to second spot.

The movie, starring Lily James as the enchanted princess and Cate Blanchett as her wicked stepmother, took $35 million in its second weekend.

Action flick “Run All Night”, featuring grizzled tough-guy Liam Neeson playing a hit man going up against the mob, was third with a whisker over $5 million in its second weekend.

But it was a disappointing debut for Oscar-winning actor Penn’s latest film, “The Gunman”, which earned only $5 million on opening.

“You have a lot of R-rated competition out there right now,” noted Dergarabedian, who also added that Penn’s foray into the action genre has not garnered the best reviews.

Despite a stellar supporting cast featuring Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Ray Winstone and Mark Rylance, the movie by “Taken” director Pierre Morel has suffered a critical mauling to date, dismissed by one reviewer as a “dull, generic retread”.

Fifth place was occupied by British spy spoof “Kingsman: The Secret Service”, which took $4.6 million in its fifth week.

Sixth spot, meanwhile, went to religious drama “Do You Believe”, another debutant this week with a disappointing opening haul. The film starring Mira Sorvino and Sean Astin earned just $3.6 million.

Sequel “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” featuring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Richard Gere, pulled in just under $3.5 million for seventh place.

“Focus”, a con-artist flick featuring Will Smith as a crook who takes on a protegee played by Margot Robbie had $3.2 million in ticket sales for eighth.

Artificial intelligence thriller “Chappie” continued its slide down the rankings, earning $2.7 million to finish ninth.

“The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” was still present on the box office charts in its seventh week in theatres, taking in $2.4 million in ticket sales to round out the top 10.

“Over the past couple of weeks, films driven by the female audience have done much better than films driven by the male audience. But that’s all going to change because ‘Furious 7’ is on the way,” said Dergarabedian.

“Put on your seatbelt and get ready, because it’s going to be an incredible ride in the coming weeks,” he said.