Weekend Box Office Report: Captain America Takes The Helm

By Bill Wine

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)  --  Captain America has captured America.  Its moviegoers, anyway.

It was Captain America versus Noah at multiplexes over the weekend and it was no contest: the former sped off with the box office crown.

The fantasy sequel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the weekend's only new mainstream release, starring Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson, earned an estimated, whopping $96-million on its debut weekend, giving it a runaway first-place finish.

That dropped Noah, last weekend's leader, the Biblical drama with Russell Crowe, to second place.  It took in another $17-million.

In third was the science fiction sequel, Divergent, with $13-million.

Rounding out the top five were two holdovers: the religious drama,God's Not Dead, and the Wes Anderson comedy, The Grand Budapest Hotel, with $8–million and $6–million respectively.

Overall, industry-wide totals were well ahead of last year's pace