In its second week in theaters, Zootopia managed to outperform expectations once again, and is currently on pace to beat the studio’s recent Academy Award winners, Big Hero 6 and Frozen. At this point, the film seems to be set up for a long stay in theaters, especially with the next few months of school vacations and holidays on the calendar.
Continuing the positive trend, 10 Cloverfield Lane rode high praise from critics and audiences alike to a $25.2 million opening weekend, which is a pretty impressive debut for a film that reportedly cost less than $15 million to make. The Cloverfield spinoff is expected to benefit from word-of-mouth buzz for at least another week or two, thanks to all of the rave reviews.
Slipping to third place for the week was Deadpool, but the “R”-rated superhero movie isn’t showing any signs of slowing down yet. Its $10.8 million weekend moved it past both Shrek the Third and Transformers on the all-time U.S. box-office rankings, and it should move past Forrest Gump and Guardians of the Galaxy next week. That’s not too shabby for a movie that almost never got made.
| # | Title | Weekend | U.S. Total | Worldwide Total |
| 1. | Zootopia | $50M | $142.6M | $431.3M |
| 2. | 10 Cloverfield Lane | $25.2M | $25.2M | $26.7M |
| 3. | Deadpool | $10.8M | $328.1M | $708.1M |
| 4. | London Has Fallen | $10.7M | $38.8M | $38.8M |
| 5. | Whiskey Tango Foxtrot | $4.6M | $14.5M | $14.5M |
| 6. | The Perfect Match | $4.1M | $4.1M | $4.1M |
| 7. | The Young Messiah | $3.4M | $3.4M | $3.4M |
| 8. | The Brothers Grimsby | $3.1M | $3.1M | $14.3M |
| 9. | Gods of Egypt | $2.5M | $27.3M | $76.4M |
| 10. | Risen | $2.2M | $32.4M | $33M |
Things weren’t so positive for the weekend’s other new arrivals, with romantic comedy The Perfect Match, faith-based film The Young Messiah, and raunchy comedy The Brothers Grimsby all earning less than $5 million in their opening weekends.
Grimsby was by far the biggest flop of the films opening this weekend, falling far short of its $35 million budget and generating the worst premiere for any of star Sacha Baron Cohen’s films. The movie’s performance suggests that there’s only room for one raunchy, “R”-rated comedy in theaters right now, and Deadpool is that movie.
Not much is expected to change next week, as the biggest movie opening this upcoming weekend is young-adult adventure The Divergent Series: Allegiant, which will likely do well without unseating Zootopia or upsetting the current hierarchy much. Basically, the box office is in a holding pattern until the arrival of Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice a few weeks from now.
