Dystopian sequel The Divergent Series: Allegiant struggled at the US box office this weekend with just $29m on debut, calling into question Hollywood’s penchant for releasing the final instalments of popular literary sagas in multiple episodes.
The latest film in the series based on Veronica Roth’s bestselling young adult science-fiction novels was down 44% compared with previous instalment Insurgent, which bowed with $52.3m a year ago. The saga’s debut episode, Divergent, made $54.6m on debut in 2014.
Lionsgate’s decision to split the book in two for the big screen followed a model the studio employed on the Hunger Games and Twilight sagas. But Allegiant, which sees Shailene Woodley’s Tris and Theo James’s Four escaping the confines of dystopian future Chicago for the first time, has suffered from derisive reviews. It currently boasts a rating of just 10% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with the Guardian’s Henry Barnes branding the film “big but boring, expansive but cheap-looking”.
Allegiant has not done too badly outside the US, scoring another $53.4m from multiple territories, including the UK, where it opened a week ago. A global total of $82.4m compares favourably with the movie’s reported $110m shooting budget, though marketing costs are likely to take that figure much higher.
Disney animation Zootopia remained king of this week’s North American box-office jungle, retaining the No 1 spot with an impressive third-week haul of $38m. The tale of a city populated by talking animals has taken $591m globally and overtook Kung Fu Panda 3 to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time in China this weekend. It has taken 1.1bn yuan ($170m) since opening at the world’s second largest box office on 4 March.
There was more positive news for the Jennifer Garner-led faith-based drama Miracles From Heaven, which opened in third place with $15m. Patricia Riggen’s film is based on the true story of a 10-year-old Texan girl who recovered from a seemingly incurable disease in 2011. The film has picked up middling reviews: “Garner gives the role her all … her subtly wrought work is tremendously effective,” opined the Guardian’s Nigel M Smith. “The picture surrounding her is nothing but crassly manipulative.”
There were no other new movies in this week’s top 10. The much-praised disaster movie sequel-of-sorts 10 Cloverfield Lane and superhero romp Deadpool rounded out the top five, with second-week and sixth-week totals of $12.5m and $8m respectively.
US box office top 10, 18-20 March
1. Zootopia: $38m. Total: $201.8m
2. The Divergent Series: Allegiant: $29m - NEW
3. Miracles From Heaven: $15m - NEW
4. 10 Cloverfield Lane: $12.5m. Total: $45.1m
5. Deadpool: $8m. Total: $340.9m
6. London Has Fallen: $6.8m. Total: $50m
7. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: $2.8m. Total: $19.2m
8. The Perfect Match: $1.9m. Total: $7.3m
9. The Brothers Grimsby: $1.4m. Total: $5.9m
10. The Revenant: $1.2m. Total: $181.1m
