“CINDERELLA” ENCHANTS MOVIEGOERS WITH $70M DEBUT

Disney’s live-action Cinderella awakened a somnolent box office over the weekend, bringing in a princely $70.1 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates. It also captivated audiences in 31 overseas markets, where it brought in an additional $62 million. The film was helped by mostly solid reviews from the likes of Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times, who remarked that the film “floats across the screen like a gossamer confection, full of elegant beauty and quiet grace.” Several critics heaped praise on British actress Lilly Ja:mes, who plays the title character. Commented Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal: “Impossibly lovely, be she cindered or begowned in cerulean splendor, and possessed of a luminous spirit that burns brighter than her backlighting, Ms. James hits a sweet spot of plausible earnestness in the midst of pleasingly extravagant Disneyness” Likewise, Manohla Dargess of the New York Times, wrote that “Ms. James effortlessly holds the big screen, less because of her beauty than the life that both animates and demystifies that beauty.” Also debuting over the weekend was the Liam Neeson action film Run All Night, which launched with about $11 million, well below analysts’ expectations.

The top ten films at the box office over the weekend according to estimates compiled by Rentrak:
1. Cinderella, $70.1 million; 2. Run All Night, $11 million; 3. Kingsman: The Secret Service, $6.2 million; 4. Focus, $5.8 million; 5. Chappie, $5.8 million; 6. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, $5.7 million; 7. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, $4.1 million; 8. McFarland, USA, $3.7 million; 9. American Sniper, $2.9 million; 10. The DUFF, $2.9 million.