娱乐英语新闻:"Noah" tops weekend North American box office

LOS ANGELES, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Director Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic "Noah" was the top film at the weekend box office in the United States and Canada.

"Noah" comes from the well-known Old Testament story of Noah's Ark. Starring Russell Crowe, it has a budget of over 125 million U. S. dollars. The three-day weekend box office of this Paramount's film is estimated to be a solid 44 million dollars from 3,567 locations, according to box-office tracker Rentrak on Sunday.

"Noah" got 76 percent of recommendation from reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes. But first-night moviegoers only gave a insipid "C " rating. The audience breakdown for the film was evenly split between female and male moviegoers and skewed heavily towards moviegoers 25 and over (74 percent).

Lionsgate's "Divergent", the top movie during its debut last weekend, held onto the second place. This best-seller adaptation plunged 51.5 percent this weekend with 26.5 million dollars, which put the young-adult science-fiction thriller starring Shailene Woodley near the 100-million-dollar mark.

"Muppets Most Wanted" got the third place with 11.4 million dollars, followed by "Mr. Peabody and Sherman" with 9.5 million dollars. "Muppets Most Wanted" was down 33 percent from last weekend's debut, which grossed 33.2 million dollars in 10 days. " Mr. Peabody and Sherman" has taken nearly 95 million dollars since it was screened.

Rounding out the 10 most popular films in North America this weekend, as estimated by studios, were "God's Not Dead" (9 million dollars), "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (8.8 million), "Sabotage" (5. 3 million), "Need For Speed" (4.3 million), "300: Rise Of An Empire" (4.3 million) and "Non-Stop" (4.1 million).