By Shadath Siam
Opening at 3,503 locations, Fox's Exodus: Gods and Kings earns an underwhelming $24.5 million to lead a weekend that was nearly 50 percent lower than the same weekend of last year. As expected Exodus's opening weekend number is much lower than the similarly themed 'Noah' which earned $43 million back in march, but what was unexpected is the fact that it even trails the number of Son of God which has a much lower budget and wasn't marketed as excessively as Exodus. Since December release are less front loaded, Exodus will definitely pass the lifetime business of Son of god but considering the poor reviews and an underwhelming B- rating on CinemaScore Noah's $101 million total looks out of reach.
After leading the box office for last three weekend Hunger games: Mockingjay part 1 dropped to second place. Surprisingly The film's estimated $13.2 million fourth weekend gross is identical to the fourth weekend gross of Catching fire which is definitely an encouraging sign.
At third place, DreamWorks Penguins of Madagascar earned $7.3 million, which was off 33 percent from last weekend.So far the computer animated film has totaled $58.8 million and considering the tuff family competition it has to face from the next weekend, $100 million total looks unreachable.
Grossing $7.21 million Weekend's other new release Top five; starring and directed by Chris Rock opened in fourth place. The critically acclaimed comedy opened in a modest 979 locations which muted its potential a bit. Paramount will expand the movie in more theaters in next few weeks and great word of mouth could make it a minor hit.
