“Zootopia” retains box office leadership as “Allegiant” underperformsMarch 21, 2016 - 10:02 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - "Zootopia" tops North American box office for a third straight week. The Disney animation remains unmoved at the peak with an estimated $38 million, bringing its total domestic cume to $201.8 million. With additional $64.8 million from international markets, the movie is close to crossing $600M mark worldwide, AceShowbiz reports. "It's just been a juggernaut," says ComScore senior box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "I don't know that anyone thought it'd do this well. With few other choices for that family audience since 'Kung Fu Panda 3', it's benefiting from a perfect release date and great word-of-mouth. "Zootopia" winning streak comes as "The Divergent Series: Allegiant" bombs. The third installment of the blockbuster franchise only collected approximately $29 million in its first weekend, just over half of the opening tallies of its predecessors "Divergent" ($54.6 million) and "The Divergent Series: Insurgent" ($52.3 million). Dergarabedian explains the movie's disappointing performance, "Younger audiences change their mind like the weather and it's very hard to gauge interest. It can't fault the release date or the marketing plan - they followed exactly what was successful the past couple years. It may just be the conditions of the marketplace." Dergarabedian, however, thinks that the next and last installment "The Divergent Series: Ascendant" still has a chance to have a better start since it's "a different type of month for its box-office potential." He adds, "It being the last one also carries a bit of cachet" and could drum up additional interest. Placing third this week is another newcomer "Miracles from Heaven". The fact-based drama starring Jennifer Garner opens to an estimated $15 million. "10 Cloverfield Lane" loses two spots, placing fourth with additional $12.5 million. At the fifth place, "Deadpool" adds an estimated $8 million to its domestic gross, for a current total of $340.9 million domestically. Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | Czech-Armenian military cooperation discussed in Yerevan A delegation led by the Director General for the Industrial Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic visited Armenia. U.S. welcomes efforts to define Armenia-Azerbaijan border The United States welcomes efforts to define the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, says Vedant Patel. Biden honors resilience of Armenian people on April 24 U.S. President Joe Biden has issued a statement on the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Ex-Karabakh leader moved to solitary confinement cell in Baku, his son says David Vardanyan is the son of former Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan who who is currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan. |