“Jupiter Ascending,” the sci-fi space opera from Andy and Lana Wachowski,” blasted off with $1 million Thursday night at the box office.
Starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, “Jupiter Ascending” will debut against two other wide openers this weekend: Paramount Pictures’ animated “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” and “Seventh Son.” The Legendary Pictures fantasy adventure tale grossed $295,000 at Thursday late shows in 1,983 theaters for distributor Universal Pictures. “The SpongeBob Movie” took in $560,000 from roughly 2,300 theaters.
None of the Thursday totals are impressive, but the animated film is expected to take off when the family crowd comes out on Saturday.
“SpongeBob” will take in north of $35 million to end the three-week run of Iraq War saga “American Sniper” atop the box office, analysts say. They project around $20 million over the three days for “Jupiter Ascending” and less than half that for “Seventh Son,” which stars Ben Barnes, Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore and Kit Harrington.
“SpongeBob” will have the widest rollout, and will be in 3,641 theaters by Friday. “Jupiter Ascending” will be in 3,181, “Seventh Son” in 2,872. The kids film is the best reviewed of the bunch, at 76 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes. “Jupiter Ascending” is at 23 and “Seventh Son” just 11.
“American Sniper” took in $2.5 million Thursday and was No. 1, as it has been since the drama directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper debuted on Jan. 16.
“American Sniper” has grossed more than $258 million domestically since rolling out a day after earning six Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor. Earlier this week, its domestic total passed that of two other 2014 Warner Bros. blockbusters, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” ($252 million) and the studio’s animated hit “The LEGO Movie” ($258 million).
And on Friday it should cross the $260 million haul of Disney’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” That will make it the third-highest grossing movie released last year, behind “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” ($335 million) and Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” ($331 million).