‘Big Hero 6’ has box office superpowers, beats ‘Interstellar’

Big Hero 6

This image released by Disney shows animated characters Hiro Hamada, voiced by Ryan Potter, left, and Baymax, voiced by Scott Adsit, in a scene from “Big Hero 6.” AP

Animated comedy “Big Hero 6” proved to have superpowers in the weekend battle for the box office, fighting off sci-fi epic “Interstellar” to claim top spot, industry estimates showed Sunday.

“Big Hero 6,” which features a 14-year-old genius and an inflatable robot called Baymax, opened with a weekend haul of $56.2 million, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations

The performance was enough to beat out Christopher Nolan’s sweeping space odyssey, “Interstellar,” where astronauts travel through a wormhole in search of a new habitable planet. The heavily hyped film came in second with $50 million.

Well behind in third place was the David Fincher thriller “Gone Girl,” starring Ben Affleck. The film, which has earned more than $145 million after six weeks in theaters, pulled in another $6.1 million at the North American box office this weekend.

Horror movie “Ouija,” down from last week’s top spot, took in $6 million, for fourth place.

In fifth place, “St. Vincent,” a comedy starring Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy and Naomi Watts, earned $5.7 million.

At number six was the Brad Pitt World War II tank drama “Fury,” with $5.5 million.

“Nightcrawler,” which stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a sleazy videojournalist, slipped to seventh place, down from the number two slot a week earlier. It pulled in $5.3 million.

In eighth place was “John Wick,” starring Keanu Reeves as an ex-hitman, which scored $4.1 million in ticket sales.

Ninth was Disney’s “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” — based on a children’s book of the same name and starring Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner. It made $3.5 million.

And rounding out the top ten was animated comedy “The Book of Life,” featuring the voices of Zoe Saldana and Channing Tatum, with $2.8 million.

Read more...