‘Zootopia’ pens up ‘Divergent: Allegiant’ to keep No. 1 spot in the weekend box office

The future might be tough, but “The Divergent Series: Allegiant” has learned that cartoons can be tougher.

Lionsgate’s dystopian sci-fi thriller aimed for a huge opening weekend, but it ran smack into Disney’s “Zootopia,” the 3-D animated comedy still breaking records entering its third week of release.

“Divergent: Allegiant” -- the third in the series based on the novels by Veronica Roth -- grossed an estimated $10.7 million on 3,740 North American screens on Saturday night, yielding a projected weekend total of just over $29 million. It was the lowest opening in the “Divergent” series.

“Allegiant” had to settle for a distant second to “Zootopia,” which grossed $16.7 million on Saturday for a beastly weekend total of nearly $38 million, leaping past the $200-million mark in overall cumulative gross.

“Zootopia” is now on track to be Disney’s highest-grossing non-Pixar animated feature, already well ahead of the previous record holder, “Frozen.”

Meanwhile, Sony saw its prayers answered with “Miracles from Heaven,” the faith-based Jennifer Garner vehicle about a mom who guides her young daughter through a serious illness.

Sony said the movie came in above expectations, thanks to a marketing outreach to churches, some special early screenings, Easter season timing and possibly a Garner cover story in Vanity Fair, in which she discussed the breakup of her marriage to Ben Affleck.

“Miracles” grossed $6.1 million on Saturday, which combined with the preview screenings should put the movie in the No. 3 spot with a gross of just under $19 million, a powerful tally for a religious-themed movie.

The fourth spot went to the Paramount thriller “10 Cloverfield Lane,” the successor to “Cloverfield” from producer J.J. Abrams. “10 Cloverfield” grossed $5.4 million on Saturday, with a cume that now stands at $45.1 million.

In the No. 5 spot was Fox’s comic-book fantasy “Deadpool,” which is still quite alive well into its second month of release. The movie drew $3.5 million on Saturday, for a cumulative gross of $340 millon.

The remainder of the Top 10 were holdovers, including Focus Features’ “London Has Fallen” at No. 6, followed by Paramount’s underperforming Tina Fey war comedy, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.”

Twitter: @scottcollinsLAT

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