LOS ANGELES – Weekend moviegoers chose sci-fi over slapstick.
Ender’s Game scored the No. 1 slot at the weekend box office, earning $28 million in its opening weekend and sending Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa into second place, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Ender’s Game, based on the novel by Orson Scott Card, stars Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford as intergalactic soldiers.
Comments made by Card expressing opposition to gay marriage led some to call for a boycott of the film.
Get daily National news
However, ticket sales didn’t come close to the opening weekends of other young-adult science-fiction adaptations such as Twilight and The Hunger Games. It did fare better than Beautiful Creatures and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.
Bad Grandpa, the candid-camera comedy starring Johnny Knoxville disguised as an old man, brought in another $20.5 million in its second weekend, with a domestic total reaching more than $62 million.
Other films opening this weekend didn’t generate as much enthusiasm.
Last Vegas, featuring an all-star cast of silver screen veterans including Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline, opened in third place, with $16.5 million.
The 3-D animated kiddie flick Free Birds, with characters voiced by Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler, debuted in the fourth spot, with $16.2 million.
After its fifth weekend at the box office, the 3-D stunner Gravity is still holding in the fifth position. It banked $13.1 million over the weekend, bringing its domestic total to $220 million.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.