‘Zootopia’ has animal allure
Families propel the Disney romp to a roaring $74M
The all-animal animated Zoo
topia trounced the human competition at the weekend box office with a stunning $73.7 million, according to studio estimates.
Zootopia’s tale of a rabbit police officer (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) teaming with a fox con artist (Jason Bateman) to solve a crime that has the city’s lion mayor (J.K. Simmons) concerned marked the largest opening three-day weekend for Walt Disney Animation Studios ever, beating the $67.4 million posted in 2013 by Frozen. Zootopia ranks as the fourth-largest March opening weekend in history.
“This is a huge debut; families flocked to Zootopia,” says Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for comScore. The movie is a critic’s darling, scoring an eyepopping 98% positive critical rating on the film site Rotten Tomatoes.com and an A audience grade on CinemaScore.
Gerard Butler’s return to saving the president in London Has
Fallen took second place with an undramatic debut of $21.7 million. That’s down from Butler’s original Secret Service mission, 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen, which flew out to a $30 million opening.
Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool took third with $16.4 million in its fourth weekend. The R-rated Marvel film has earned a staggering $311 million since its recordbreaking debut of $135 million.
Tina Fey’s journalist sent to Afghanistan in Whiskey Tango Fox
trot took fourth with $7.6 million in its opening weekend. Fey “is a very well-known, very respected person. But she’s not a movie star,” says Scott Mendelson, box office analyst for Forbes. “People don’t go out to see a movie just because Tina Fey is in it.”
Butler also had a mediocre weekend with his starring role in
Gods of Egypt, which was fifth with $5 million in its second weekend (for a total $22.8 million). Director Terrence Malick’s
Knight of Cups, starring Christian Bale, opened in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles for a total of $56,668 and a solid location average of $14,172.
Final numbers are out Monday.