“Noah” Steals the Show at the Box Office with $15 Million Opening

“Noah” opens to meet all expectations and is on pace for $40 million weekend after a $15.2 million first-day FridaY.

Paramount and New Regency's mega budget film, which stars Russell Crowe as Noah, has been much criticized by the religious groups and even got banned in a numbER of countries. The “Requiem for a Dream” director Darren Aronofsky and studio were having some conflicts after Christian groups quetched that biblical film didn't follow Christian Holy Book appropriately, and studio issued an announcement at the start of the moVie mentioning that the it was a theatrical construal.

There were many rumors AND negative speculations that the film may not be able to do well at the box office amid immense criticism around the world and after it was banned in several countries. But, the film is already being considered a box office hit with huge opening and has topped all contemporary releases including “Divergent” and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Sabotage”.

As anticipated, the biblical epic grabbed the attention of older crowd, with nearly 75% of the viewers above the age of 25, while the gender difference turned out to be 50-50. The critics have been encouraging (almost 77% on Rotten Tomatoes) on the story. The film got a poor "C" CinemaScore that is not shocking provided few unanticipated fantasy aspects of the film. Considering that unconstructive tittle-tattle is not quite effective this weekend, the biblical epic must finish with nearly $40 million for the 3-day frame.

Lionsgate's “Divergent” finished at 2nd spot with nearly $8 million, almost 50% fall from previous week's launch day. It is still in a market-high four thousands cinemas and on pace for a 2nd weekend in the $25 million range that would increase its home revenue to almost $95 million.

The weekend's other launch, action thriller “Sabotage” was unable to impress or entertain the audiences and turned out to be straight flop, with only $1.8 million Friday. It expects a 3-day overall business of nearly $6 million, which implies a 3rd huge failure for the action star Arnold since he came back to the Hollywood. The movie even cannot match the $9.2 million launch of “Escape Plan” starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and may not come close to the $6.5 million launch of “The Last Stand”.

Have you watched the “Noah” that stars Emma Watson and Jennifer Connolly? What you think of it?