Box Office: 'The Maze Runner' Opens at No. 1 With $32.5 Million
Young Adult adaptations don't have to be the sole domain of girls, as boy-centered YA films can apparently be hits as well: based on the best-selling novel by James Dashner, The Maze Runner has opened to an impressive $32.5 million, easily toppling the disappointing $13.1 million debut of Liam Neeson's latest, gritty action thriller, A Walk Among the Tombstones.
In addition to its strong performance stateside, The Maze Runner is also a hit internationally, raking in $37.6 million from 50 markets. This brings the worldwide debut total to a solid $81.5 million, which is more than double the film's $34 million budget. Starring Teen Wolf's Dylan O'Brien as a young man who wakes up in the center of a massive maze with no memory of how he came to be there, The Maze Runner drew an audience in which 65% of the moviegoers were under the age of 25, and split nearly down the middle, with 52% female and 48% male. Those are impressive numbers for a genre that hasn't always drawn male audiences, as male-centric Young Adult adaptation Ender's Game underperformed just under a year ago.
No other film even came close to overtaking with The Maze Runner this week, as its nearest competitor was No. 2 opener A Walk Among The Tombstones, which did a little more than half of its $23 million budget with its $13.1 million opening. Based on a series of best-selling mystery novels by Lawrence Block, the film stars Neeson as former NYC cop Matt Scudder, who is hired to help find a drug dealer's kidnapped wife, since this is Liam Neeson and finding kidnapped loved ones is sort of his thing.
Coming in at No. 3 was the ensemble dramedy This Is Where I Leave You. Starring Jason Bateman, Rose Byrne, Tina Fey, Adam Driver and Jane Fonda, the $20 million film from director Shawn Levy (Real Steel, Night at the Museum) earned $11.9 million. This was enough to edge out last weekend's No. 1, No Good Deed. The thriller fell to No. 4 in week two, bringing in $10.2 million to round up its domestic haul to an impressive $40 million.
Rounding out the Top 5 this week was Dolphin Tale 2, which saw a 43% drop from last week. The film earned $9 million, bringing its latest total to $27.1 million.
But no feat was more impressive this week than the continued, massive success of Guardians of the Galaxy. The Marvel Studios release earned $5.2 million in North America and $10.4 million internationally to bring its worldwide total to $632.2 million, meaning the film has now surpassed one of Marvel's all-time biggest box office successes, Iron Man 2, which earned $624 million globally in 2010. Landing at No. 6 this week, the film doesn't seem anywhere close to being out of steam just yet.
Check out the full Top 10 at the weekend box office below:
1. The Maze Runner ($32.5 million)
2. A Walk Among the Tombstones ($13.2 million)
3. This Is Where I Leave You ($11.9 million)
4. No Good Deed ($24.5 million)
5. Dolphin Tale 2 ($9 million)
6. Guardians of the Galaxy ($5.2 million)
7. Let's Be Cops ($2.7 million)
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ($2.7 million)
9. The Drop ($2.1 million)
10. If I Stay ($1.8 million)
Via: The Hollywood Reporter / Box Office Mojo
Credit: 20th Century Fox