“Allegiant” Falls to “Zootopia” as Franchise Fatigue Sets In

Despite even more competition, no film could stop the reign of Zootopia. Disney’s well-regarded animal flick has now stayed on top for three straight weeks, with very minor drops each time. It’s now topped $200 million and seems bound for $250 million, though $300 million seems a little high.

Its biggest competition, Allegiant, did not find a loyal audience. The third film in the Divergent series debuted more than $20 million below what Divergent and Insurgent opened to. As many studios are discovering, there’s a lot of franchise fatigue, especially in book adaptations that pump out a movie every year. Allegiant will barely top $100 million and expect finale Ascendant to either get delayed or otherwise moved from its major summer 2017 perch. Lionsgate/Summit is probably ready to get this underperformer out of the way.

But it was a heavenly opening for Miracles from Heaven. The faith-based film opened to $15 million, and has taken in $18 million since opening on Wednesday. Faith-based films are flooding the marketplace, but they’re hit-or-miss when it comes to drawing in audiences. For every War Room, there’s a 90 Minutes in Heaven. This one’s likely to crack the top 10 of the Christian genre. 10 Cloverfield Lane fell further down its bunker, taking in only $12.5 million. It won’t match the original Cloverfield’s $80 million gross. And Deadpool is down to the end of its run, but what a run. It will finish eighth all-time on the comic book movie list and will probably remain the top movie of 2016 for a few months.

Outside the top 5:

• This Weekend's Indie Champ: Midnight Special, the sci-fi thriller from acclaimed filmmaker Jeff Nichols. It averaged $36,800 on five screens.
• The Bronze didn’t even place. The raunchy comedy about a former Olympian trying to reclaim her glory days fell victim to Sony Pictures Classics’ flawed release strategy. It opened in more than 1,100 theaters despite very little marketing. Thus, it bombed with one of the all-time worst averages of any wide release.To put that in perspective, Kapoor & Sons Since 1921, an Indian film that opened on 1,000 fewer screens than The Bronze, made more than double. On just 143 screens, the film made $965,000.
• Well, it took more than 20 weeks and after it was already on home video, but Spectre finally crossed $200 million domestically. That’s more than $100 million less than what Skyfall made in 2012.

Next week:

It’s the movie that almost everyone has been waiting for: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. After endless speculation and online jokes, we’ll finally get to see if this is the battle of the century or another colossal letdown from Zack Snyder. Either way, it’s going to have a huge opening weekend. But just how huge? That’s hard to say. For a movie this big, anything under $150 million will look like a disappointment. But does it seem that most people are as excited for this as, say, Captain America: Civil War? Not based on my anecdotal evidence. But I could be wrong. So let’s just say slightly above expectations at $155 million.