The Divergent Series: Insurgent was the number one movie of the weekend, riding a scintillating subplot about a white girl getting a haircut to a $54 million domestic gross. That was about on par with Divergent‘s $54.6 million opening on the same weekend last year (though that was accomplished without a 3D upcharge, unlike the sequel). TDS:I topped the charts in 66 of 76 markets, earning $101 million globally. I hope they gave Shailene Woodley a big bonus and that she buys herself a nice yurt made of reclaimed Keds or whatever, because she’s the only thing I know about those movies. “So there’s this white girl who frowns a lot, and then she gets a haircut. I think the other people wear jumpsuits?”
The other major release of the weekend was The Gunman, from Taken director Pierre Morel, starring Sean Penn. The big question was whether a non-Taken Taken movie (NTT) with a different star would do as poorly as Liam Neeson’s NTT from a few weeks ago. The Gunman earned an estimated $5 million, not only worse than Run All Night‘s already-pretty-sh*tty $11 million opening last week, but worse than Run All Night‘s $5.1 million this weekend. America just didn’t want to watch Spicoli brood. I imagine Sean Penn’s plan is to look even sadder and smoke more cigarettes. It’s a vicious cycle.
Elsewhere, Do You Believe?, a sort of faith-based Crash from the makers of God’s Not Dead, opened in 1320 locations, but managed only $4 million. Less than half of God’s Not Dead‘s $9.2 million opening last March, which it accomplished in only 780 locations. I don’t know if that’s a sign that faith-based films are officially on the wane, but the fact that this one starred Ted McGinley, the patron saint of shark jumping, doesn’t bode well.
This weekend brings us Get Hard, and Home, from Dreamworks animation. The year has already seen two Kevin Hart movies (three if you count Top Five) and it’s only March.