1. Cinderella- $70.3M
At this point it seems every film Disney puts out there is going to be a hit. They've got everything at their disposal, from the Marvel flicks to Star Wars to animation (they just won an Oscar for Big Hero 6), and even their live-action fairy tales are like printing money. Their latest, Cinderella, is an old fashioned retelling of the classic story and it scored a magical $70.3M. This wasn't Maleficent which had the muscle of Angelina Jolie's villainous turn, but instead had Cate Blanchett as the evil stepmother. Granted, the film probably got a significant surge because audiences wanted to check out the short film, Frozen Fever. Smartly, Disney announced a true Frozen sequel just a day before Cinderella opened, giving fans even more reason to turn out. With The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland 2 and more on the way Disney isn't going to stop until all of your childhood favorites have been revisited, especially if they keep doing business like this.
2. Run All Night- $11M
Apparently Liam Neeson's fans would rather be Taken by him than to Run All Night with him. His latest geriatric action flick scored a measly $11M, the lowest he's earned since venturing on this new career path. The truth is, Neeson's non-Taken genre films are very different and speak to a different audience. Even though I may not have been a big fan of Run All Night like some critics were, it's not just another straight-forward "beat up the bad guys" flick, which is what audiences really like to see him in.
3. Kingsman: The Secret Service- $6.2M/$107.3M
20th Century Fox has to be doing backflips over the performance of Matthew Vaughn's spy flick reinvention, Kingsman: The Secret Service. It was once again the strongest holdover of the week, only slipping 25%, and the $80M feature has now earned $257M worldwide. Bring on the sequel, please.
4. Focus- $5.805M/$44M
5. Chappie- $5.8M/$23.3M
Neill Blomkamp's robotic sci-fi flick Chappie tumbled 56% with only $5.8M. It got off to a tough start and hasn't really recovered. Fortunately the budget was only around $49M, and with worldwide grosses at $37M it should at least break even.
6. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel- $5.7M/$18M
There's still some life in the old dogs yet. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which probably didn't cost much to produce, held strong with $5.7M and a drop of only 33%. This was always going to perform better elsewhere and it is doing well overseas with an additional $21M.
7. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water- $4.1M/$154.6M
Title too long! Go away!
8. McFarland, USA- $3.6M/$34.9M
9. American Sniper- $2.93M/$341.5M
10. The DUFF- $2.9M/$30.3M
Worth mentioning because of the film's incredible buzz from the festival circuit, David Robert Mitchell's inventive horror It Follows opened with a massive $163K in only four locations. The film features no big names but has gotten by on the novel premise, centering on a girl (rising star Maika Monroe) who is the victim of a sexually-transmitted haunting. Yeah, you read that right. The film has received great reviews (although mine was in the middle) and this is a true case where word-of-mouth has had a big impact.
