"Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials" won the weekend box office, opening to an estimated $30.3 million, grossing slightly lower than its predecessor, "The Maze Runner," which earned $32.5 million last September, according to The Wall Street Journal.
20th Century Fox coughed up $61 million to produce the sequel as opposed to $34 million on last year's post-apocalyptic young adult adaptation. The film, starring Dylan O'Brien in the lead role, released in 3,791 locations, receiving intense competition from "Black Mass."
The Warner Bros.' film featuring Johnny Depp as notorious gangster Whitey Bulger, came in at second place with an opening of $23.4 million, which is a solid start for an R-rated adult drama, giving Depp a much-needed win after a slew of box office disappointments including "Mortdecai," ''Transcendence" and "The Lone Ranger."
"It's all about Johnny Depp. He gives such an extraordinary performance in this film, and that is what everybody is talking about. He's a guy that swings for the fences, and sometimes falls short. But when he connects with the bat, he hits it out of the park," said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. distribution executive vice president, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
M. Night Shyamalan's "The Visit" topped the holdovers, earning an estimated $11.4 million, taking its domestic total total to $42.3 million after a run of 10 days, according to Entertainment Weekly.
"The Perfect Guy" came in just behind after taking first place last weekend, raking in $9.7 million. The film's domestic total is now at $41.4 million.
Fifth place went to "Everest," which opened exclusively on 3-D, IMAX and premium screens, earning a whopping $7.6 million in spite of being released in only 545 theaters.
The weekend's other new wide release, "Captive," a low-budget drama starring Kate Mara, premiered to just $1.4 million in 800 locations. "Sicario" bowed at merely six locations but earned $390,000 in revenues, giving it the highest per-theater average of any movie this year.
