“INSURGENT” LIKELY TO SURGE TO #1 AT BOX OFFICE

Lionsgate’s Insurgent, a sequel to Divergent, which opened at about this same time last year with $55 million, is expected to send Cinderella back to her pumpkin carriage this weekend as it opens with about the same earnings as its predecessor. Like that one, Insurgent is receiving mostly poor to mediocre reviews. Typical is Manohla Dargis’s in the New York Times, who begins her review this way: “Tighter, tougher and every bit as witless as its predecessor, The Divergent Series: Insurgent … arrives with a yawn and ends with a bang.” Indeed several critics who slam the movie overall have good things to say about the ending, including Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle, who writes: “Insurgent would be a much worse movie if the good parts were all at the beginning. But they are saved for the end, and they leave the viewer with a feeling of, ‘Well, that was OK,’ even though most of it wasn’t.” Also opening this weekend are the Sean Penn action flick The Gunman and the faith-based Do You Believe? Each film is expected to earn about $7-10 million and duel for third place — they received mostly poor reviews — behind Divergent and Cinderella. The latter film is likely to drop about 50 percent to around $45-50 million.