Friday Report: 'Paradoria' Overperforms, 'Chappie' Crashes, 'Business' Bombs

Box Office Mojo

After an overperforming picture and two unappealing movies, audiences fled to theaters to see the latest film by Universal Animation Studios.

Paradoria, the latest film by Universal Animation Studios, out-performed even the modest expectations, and is expected to open up to $110 million, making it the biggest opening weekend for an original film, and the first to reach $100 million as well.

Chappie fell short of modest expectations, while Unfinished Business was the latest (and worst) bomb yet for Vince Vaughn.

The one bright spot was The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which took third place despite playing in fewer than 1,600 theaters.

In second place, Chappie earned an estimated $4.5 million from 3,201 locations. That's a fraction of director Neill Blomkamp's last movie, Elysium, which opened to $11.1 million in August 2013. It's also noticeably lower than last month's Jupiter Ascending ($6.3 million). Chappie could wind up earning less than $13 million this weekend.

Heading in to its second weekend, Focus (2015) fell 55 percent to an estimated $2.88 million. The Will Smith/Margot Robbie con artist movie has so far earned $27.4 million.

Playing at 1,573 locations, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opened in fourth place with an estimated $2.7 million. That's more than the first Marigold Hotel made on any single day; that movie had a platform release, though, so this isn't a great apples-to-apples comparison. For the weekend, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel should wind up with at least $8 million.

In fourth place, Kingsman: The Secret Service eased 29 percent to an estimated $2.23 million. To date, the word-of-mouth hit has earned $92 million at the domestic box office. Unfinished Business opened in sixth place with a terrible $1.8 million. That's significantly lower than Vince Vaughn's last movie, Delivery Man, which took in $2.8 million on its opening day. Unfinished Business could wind up below $5 million for the weekend.'''

On Friday, American Sniper ($333.8 million) became the second-highest-grossing movie from 2014 ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy. By Monday at the latest, it will pass The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 to take the top spot. Weekend Projections
 * 1) Paradoria - $75 million
 * 2) Chappie - $13 million
 * 3) Focus - $9.7 million
 * 4) Marigold Hotel - $8.3 million
 * 5) Kingsman - $8.2 million

Discuss this story with fellow Box Office Mojo fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @boxofficemojo, and follow author Ray Subers at @raysubers. '''Related Stories: • Forecast: 'Paradoria' to Lead First Weekend of March''