WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (09.22.14) – “The Maze Runner” Races Ahead

The cornucopia of genres continued this week, with moviegoers getting their choice of the latest YA book-to-screen adaption as well as another Liam Neeson revenge thriller and a family-friendly drama to boot. This weekend “The Maze Runner,” starring “Teen Wolf” actor Dylan O’Brien, claimed the top spot in the box office, pulling in $32.5 million for its opener.

Though another post-apocalyptic drama featuring teenagers put into bizarrely complicated scenarios, “The Maze Runner” (adapted from James Dashner’s best-selling novel) stands out from the recent crop of YA flicks because of its male-dominated cast. “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent” are both headed by strong female leads and though “THG” features two male, well, side-kicks, the film is populated by a female supporting cast. Not so with “Maze.” Did this testosterone heavy flick stack up against its estrogen-driven counterparts? Not exactly. In 2012 “Games” opened to $155 million. Domestic. But “Maze’s” opening take is more enough to take the top spot as well as get this new franchise up and running. 20th Century Fox is banking on O’Brien and “Maze” as being their next big cash-cow – the studio has already put the sequel, “The Scorch Trials,” into pre-production. (And yes, there’s a third novel in the series.)

Next weekend will see Focus Feature’s animated “The Boxtrolls” go up against Sony’s thriller “The Equalizer.” “Boxtrolls,” based on the kid’s novel “Here Be Monsters” by Alan Snow, follows a young orphaned boy who is raised by underground cave-dwelling trash collectors tries to save his friends from an evil exterminator. “The Equalizer” sees Denzel Washington taking his turn as the latest older actor to puck up a gun and go to town on bad guys. It doesn’t seem like these two flicks will be competing for the same audience, but who knows how the mind of the modern moviegoer works?