NEW YORK — The teen science-fiction thriller Divergent starring Shailene Woodley debuted with $56 million over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
With an audience 59 percent female and half under the age of 25, Divergent lured young moviegoers with dystopian drama and an upcoming star.
Divergent, though, fell well short of its forerunners: Twilight opened with $69.6 million in 2008, and The Hunger Games began with $152.5 million in 2012.
Muppets sequel Muppets Most Wanted, with Ricky Gervais and Tina Fey, fared poorly, earning just $16.5 million over the weekend. The Muppets opened notably better with $29.2 million in 2011, benefiting from the high-profile reboot starring and co-written by Jason Segal.
The animated Mr. Peabody and Sherman — tops at the box office last weekend — slid to third with $11.7 million. In fourth place was 300: Rise of an Empire with $8.7 million.
The surprise of the weekend was the strong performance of the independently released God’s Not Dead, made to appeal specifically to faith-based audiences. It came in fifth with $8.6 million, despite playing on just 780 screens.
Expanding from 66 to 304 screens, Wes Anderson’s European caper The Grand Budapest Hotel continued to pack theaters in limited release. It earned $6.5 million in its third week of release, with further expansion planned.
And though the crowd-funding of the big-screen edition of cult TV show Veronica Mars drew much publicity for its successful Kickstarter campaign, the movie has proved only of interest to devoted fans. On 347 screens, it made just $144,000, bringing its two-week total to $2.9 million.
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