NON-STOP TAKES DIRECT FLIGHT TO FIRST PLACE

There was no stopping the recent surge at the box office as Universal’s Non-Stop led another solid weekend with ticket sales of $28.9 million, followed by Son of God with $25.6 million and the third week of The Lego Movie with $20.8 million. Overall, the top 12 films grossed $108 million versus $88 million for the comparable weekend a year ago — a whopping 22-percent rise. Final figures showed that both Non-Stop and Son of God took in about $1 million less on Sunday than the studios had estimated, but the studio staffers doing the estimating had more variables to deal with than usual, including rainstorms on the West Coast and cold and snow on the East; competition from the Oscars; and, in the case of Son of God, a non-habitual movie audience mainly of churchgoers. There was more bad news for Sony’s Pompeii, which dropped 58 percent from its dismal opening last week to wind up with just $4.3 million. The film, which cost about $80 million to produce, has now earned only $17.8 million. On the other hand, Disney’s Frozen remained in the top ten for the 14th week, adding another $3.6 million to its domestic gross, which now stands a $389 million. The film marked another milestone over the weekend when its worldwide total passed $1 billion.