Weekend Box Office Report: Divergent Crushes The Competition
By Bill Wine
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There's a new leader at the box office.
Moviegoers converged on Divergent at multiplexes overt the weekend, giving the new science fiction drama starring Shailene Woodley and Kate Winslet a runaway first-place finish and an impressive opening-weekend estimated take of $56-million.
Looks like we've found the Young Adult successor to the Twilight and Hunger Games franchises.
A distant second place went to another new attraction, Muppets Most Wanted, featuring Ricky Gervais and Tina Fey, with the comedy sequel taking in a modest $16-million.
In third was the box-office leader of last weekend, the animated comedy, Mr. Peabody & Sherman.
It earned $12-million. And rounding out the top five were the holdover, 300: Rise of an Empire, and the debuting religious dramedy, God's Not Dead, each of which took in just under $9-million.
Overall, industry-wide totals were the equivalent of those of a year ago.