Darren Aronofsky’s biblical re-imagining Noah, not surprisingly dominated ticket sales over the weekend. Despite criticism from some religious groups over the fantastical nature of the retelling, the film still attracted floods of people to the theaters. Noah in many regards is the original disaster epic and those have always been a big draw in ticket sales. The film had an estimated $44 million dollar opening weekend, which is the largest debut for a Russell Crowe led production as well. Divergent had another strong weekend with over $26 million in sales, in its second week of release. Muppets Most Wanted came in third with an estimated $11 million and in its fourth week of release Mr. Peabody & Sherman pulled in another $9 million. A film with heavy religious undertones and themes God’s Not Dead came in fifth rounding out the top five.

 

This Week	Movie Title	Weekend Gross	# of Theaters	Theater Average	Weeks Released	Total Gross
1	Noah	$44.00M	3567	$12,335	1	$44.00M
2	Divergent	$26.50M	3936	$6,733	2	$95.26M
3	Muppets Most Wanted	$11.37M	3194	$3,561	2	$33.21M
4	Mr. Peabody & Sherman	$9.50M	3299	$2,880	4	$94.91M
5	God’s Not Dead	$9.08M	1178	$7,704	2	$22.03M
6	The Grand Budapest Hotel	$8.83M	977	$9,033	4	$24.46M
7	Sabotage	$5.33M	2486	$2,144	1	$5.33M
8	Need For Speed	$4.34M	2705	$1,603	3	$37.75M
9	300: Rise of an Empire	$4.30M	2601	$1,653	4	$101.15M
10	Non-Stop	$4.10M	2515	$1,630	5	$85.18M

 

Biblical films have had strong box office power in recent times and it will be interesting to see if studios follow the new wrinkle added by Aronosfky’s Noah. Will we be seeing Clash of the Titan style parables regularly? That is a likely bet. Expect the older audience (according to Box Office Mojo 74% of Noah‘s audience was 25 or older) of Noah and the younger target audience of Divergent to both take a huge hit when Captain America: The Winter Solider opens this friday.

 

SOURCES: Fandango and Box Office Mojo

 

-Braxter Timberlake-