Shailene Woodley kicks Tom Cruise's butt at box office

Moviegoers have fallen in love with Fox’s "The Fault in Our Stars” with Saturday estimates as high as $58 million for the U.S. opening weekend of the Shailene Woodley-Ansel Elgort romance reports Variety.

The well-reviewed film outperformed earlier forecasts on Friday with $26.1 million, including $8.2 million from Thursday night showings. With an “A” Cinemascore indicating strong word of mouth, “The Fault in Our Stars” should eclipse the $54 million that Woodley’s “Divergent” scored in its March 21-23 opening weekend.

The film will generate impressive profits for Fox, given the $12 million budget. “Twilight” producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen produced “The Fault in Our Stars,” from a script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber.

Woodley’s star power, combined with the young-female fanbase of John Green’s novel about two cancer patients, has enabled “The Fault in Our Stars” to easily outshine the opening of Warner Bros.’ Tom Cruise tentpole “Edge of Tomorrow.”

Friday estimates for Warner Bros.-Village Roadshow sci-fier came in at $10.6 million for a weekend bow in the $29 million to $31 million range. “Edge of Tomorrow,” with a $178 million budget, generated a B-plus Cinemascore with A and A-minus grades for younger moviegoers.
On the foreign front, “Edge” added $19 .3 million on Friday, bringing the international cume to $60.3 million.

Disney’s second weekend of Angelina Jolie’s “Maleficent” looks likely to finish ahead of “Edge of Tomorrow” for the second slot in the U.S. The fantasy took in an estimated $10.1 million on Friday, lifting its U.S. cume to $104 million, putting it on track for a weekend of around $34 million.

Fox’s third weekend of “X-Men: Days of Future Past” will lead the rest of the pack with around $15 million, including $4.5 million on Friday. The mutant tentpole will wind up the weekend with a U.S.  cume around $190 million.

Universal’s second weekend of “A Million Ways to Die in the West” was fading fast, heading to fifth place with a 59% decline to about $6.8 million following a Friday take of $2.2 million. Its domestic total should wind up the weekend around $30 million.

Warner’s fourth frame of “Godzilla” stomped into sixth with an estimated $6.3 million following a $1.8 million Friday. The domestic total should hit $185 million and the worldwide will go past $400 million by the end of the weekend.