Weekend Box Office Report: Noah Floats To The Top

By Bill Wine

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Biblical drama led the way at multiplexes over the weekend.

Moviegoers flooded to multiplexes to see Noah, the Biblical disaster epic starring Russell Crowe, earning it an estimated $44-million and giving it a first-place finish on its debut weekend.

That dropped last weekend’s box-office leader, Divergent, to second place with a total of $27-million.

Third place went to the holdover, Muppets Most Wanted, with $11-million.

No other title eclipsed the $10-million mark.

The weekend’s other new mainstream release, Sabotage, the action thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, took in a modest $5-million, good for a seventh-place finish.

Overall, industry-wide totals were slightly below those of a year ago.