This weekend, while Kermit the Frog will fall prey to a criminal plot in front of younger children and families in Muppets Most Wanted, Shailene Woodley and Neil Burger’s DIvergent will be attracting nearly every other audience demographic there is. And based on the dystopian fantasy’s impressive Thursday night box office receipts, it looks like this is going to be an unequivocal success, which I’m sure will be a face-palm of butthurt for everyone who either hoped or assumed that this flick was a failure out of the gates. I’m pretty sure it’s going to own those gates after this weekend. According to THR, Divergent brought in around $4.9 million from the limited Thursday showings. (The theaters where I lived had two screenings a piece.) Those numbers put it on pace to bring in anywhere from $50-$60 million once Monday morning tallies are completed. While the cinema-friendly statisticians are predicting the higher number, Summit/Lionsgate are being more reserved and guessing the lower total. Both fall short of the previously touted total of a $65 million opening, but it’s possible it’ll be even higher. Predictions are fun! It isn’t an outstanding night of ticket sales, as the similar YA efforts Twilight and The Hunger Games eclipsed it with $7 million and $19.7 million respectively. But then I don’t think anyone expects Divergent to rise above those ridiculously popular films. That said, Twilight took in $69 million on its first weekend, which wouldn’t be out of the question, if the half-strong word-of-mouth continues to trickle through potential audiences’ ears. (There’s no way Hunger Games’ $152 million opening is getting touched here, no matter how many young girls Lionsgate sacrifices to the gods.) But maybe it’ll be a different story when the greenlit sequel Insurgent comes out a year from now. It helps that Divergent is mainly going up against children’s movies for its first week out, as James Bobin’s Muppets sequel and the surprisingly strong Mr. Peabody & Sherman will likely be following it on the top ten. The numbers for Muppets’ Thursday night box office didn’t make it into the story, which must mean they weren’t that impressive. Or maybe Fozzie botched the numbers. With a budget of $85 million, Divergent’s "teenage girl who figures out she’s special enough to get hunted down by post-apocalyptic antagonists" might have been enough to become a success without famous names, but this is an impressive cast, as Woodley is joined by Miles Teller, Kate Winslet, Ashley Judd, Theo James, Ray Stevenson, Jai Courtney, Zoe Kravitz, Maggie Q and more. Will you be watching all of these people live up to their virtuous demands this weekend?
Nwes Source:www.cinemablend.com
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