‘Insurgent’ tops US box office; ‘The Gunman’ fires a blank
LOS ANGELES—Dystopian thriller “Insurgent” blasted its way to top spot at the North American box office this weekend as the Sean Penn action movie “The Gunman” fired a blank, estimated figures showed last weekend.
The second big-screen adaptation based on Veronica Roth’s best-selling “Divergent” trilogy, “Insurgent” opened with $54 million, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co.
This relegated Disney’s live-action “Cinderella” remake to second spot.
Starring Lily James as the enchanted princess and Cate Blanchett as her wicked stepmother, “Cinderella” took $34.5 million in its second weekend.
Action flick “Run All Night,” featuring grizzled tough-guy Liam Neeson playing a hit man going up against the mob, was third with $5.1 million in its second weekend.
Disappointing
It was a disappointing debut for Oscar-winning actor Penn’s latest film, “The Gunman,” which earned only $5 million on opening.
Despite a stellar supporting cast featuring Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Ray Winstone and Mark Rylance, the movie by “Taken” director Pierre Morel has suffered a critical mauling to date, dismissed by one reviewer as a “dull, generic retread.”
Fifth place was occupied by British spy spoof “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” which took $4.6 million in its fifth week.
Sixth went to religious drama “Do You Believe”; seventh went to the sequel “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”; and eighth, “Focus.”
“Chappie” finished ninth, and “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water,” took in $2.3 million in ticket sales to round out the top 10. AFP
