Cinderella Dominates Box Office With $70 Million Opening

Posted on March 15, 2015

Cinderella made $70 million during its opening weekend and dominated the box office. The live action film starring Lily James as Cinderella also topped the international box office. The film is directed by Kenneth Branagh.

The hit means more success for Disney. It also means stardom for Lily who recently revealed that she originally auditioned to play the role of one of the step-sisters. She told Nightline, "I actually originally went in for one of the sisters, to play Anastasia. And I had this awful pink-orange jumper and my hair had been dyed blonde with big brown roots."

Cinderella was followed by Run All Night starring Liam Neeson. The thriller had a modest opening and made $11 million in 3,171 theaters. Cinderella and Run All Night were the new opening wide releases this weekend. Run All Night was followed by Kingsman: The Secret Service, Focus, Chappie and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

American Sniper added another $3 million this weekend. It has now made $341.5 million which makes it the top grossing film of 2014, ahead of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Insurgent and The Gunman arrive in theaters this weekend. Shailene Woodley and Theo James will need a $54 million opening weekend to repeat the success of Divergent last March. It may be more difficult to this year as they will be facing a strong second weekend from Cinderella which as an "A" CinemaScore.

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