Ridley Scott's expensive Biblical epic, the one with all the Aussie and British actors, got off to a middling start with $24.5M, but it was enough to lead a weak box office. To put that into context, it's nearly $20M less than what Darren Aronofsky's Noah did at the early part of the year, and is just short of the small-budget Son of God's $25.6M. Scott was adamant that casting big names such as Christian Bale and Ben Kingsley were necessary to get the film made, and we're seeing that pay off in the international numbers. Add another $32M overseas and the $57M total doesn't seem so bad.
2. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1- $13.2M/$277.3M
3. Penguins of Madagascar- $7.3M/$58.8M
4. Top Five- $7.2M
Notice how Chris Rock has been all over the news lately? How every word he says on race or politics is getting plastered everywhere? It's not random; he's got a movie to promote. That would be Top Five, which has been blanketed by amazing reviews (including mine) and some solid awards buzz, even if Paramount hasn't done much to hype the celebrity comedy. And all of Rock's self-promotion has worked because it debuted with $7.2M on only 979 screens, giving it the highest per site average in the top 10. Not too shabby, and being so high on the charts is its own promotion for a film titled Top Five, right?
5. Big Hero 6- $6.1M/$185.3M
6. Interstellar- $5.5M/$166.8M
7. Horrible Bosses 2- $4.6M/$43.6M
8. Dumb and Dumber To- $2.7M/$82.1M
9. The Theory of Everything- $2.5M/$17.1M
10. Wild- $1.5M/$2.4M
Fresh off a Golden Globes nominations for Reese Witherspoon, the hiking drama Wild expanded to 113 theaters in its second week and earned a respectable $1.5M. Expect this one to have pretty long legs (no pun intended) as we get closer to Oscars announcements.
