The Weekend Report

Is Noah a Divergent? Is God dead? Does The Governator have a need for speed? These questions and more will be answered by The Muppets & Peabody & Sherman when they check into The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The Weekend Report

The much-ballyhooed debut of Divergent handily led weekend moviegoing with an estimated $56.2 million.That left newcomer Muppets Most Wanted with poor seconds of $16.5 million. But the session curve ball belonged to the inspirational God’s Not Dead that played largely heartland multiplexes and grossed a significant $8.7 million.

The Weekend Report

There may have been a Need for Speed in the marketplace but the cross country carnage came up short of top gear and finished with the bronze and an estimated $17.7 million. The session’s top dog was in fact the animated canine Mr. Peabody & Sherman that posted $21.4 million.

The frame’s only other national deb was the urban comedy The Single Mom’s Club that performed to expectations with an $8.4 million box office. Among the limited openings the big screen version of TV cult favorite Veronica Mars was off to a good start with a $2 million tally from 291 locations while the psychological thriller Enemy grossed a fair $233,000 from 53 playdates.

Wilmington on Movies: Need for Speed

Need for Speed—a movie based on a popular video game about outlaw street-and-highway racing—is a big, bad, flashy, terminally dopey muscle car of a movie, which tries to be a Fast and Furious-style actioner and ends up being Rushed and Ridiculous instead. Not that I’m filing any briefs for the Fast and the Furious movie franchise, an overwrought high-octane saga in which scowling, fiercely intent super-drivers whiz and careen and roar past each other in unlikely and dangerous racing locales and outrageous CGI-enhanced stunts. Smash hit as it may be, that is a movie series which has given me no pleasure at all despite its vast expenditures of cash, blistering road action, and apparently well-satisfied audiences.

The Weekend Report

Liberty, mostly in terms of historic fact, could not withstand the charge of 300: Rise of an Empire as it debuted at the top of the charts with an estimated $44.9 million. The frame’s other incoming national freshman Mr. Peabody & Sherman received the bark of approval in second spot with $32.3 million. But the big noise among new entries belonged to The Grand Budapest Hotel that bowed with $828,000 on just four screens following last weekend’s potent international debuts in France and Switzerland.

The Weekend Report

Industry trackers generally gave the edge to Non-Stop though frankly seemed adrift about how to gauge the opening appeal of Son of God. The high-flying tale of an air marshal pitting wits against a mysterious killer eight miles aloft seemed an ideal fit for the macho appeal of Liam Neeson and performed slightly better than anticipated.