"The Fault in Our Stars" has grabbed the number one spot at the box office last weekend with a total gross of $48.2 million. This pushed "Maleficent" to second place with $33.5 million, "Edge of Tomorrow" to third place with $29.1, "X-Men: Days of Future Past" with $14.7 million, and "A Million Ways to Die in the West" with $7.2 million, Forbes reported.
Created with a budget of $12 million, the film adaptation of John Green's best-selling novel intended for moviegoers who have the appetite for female-driven movies apparently defeated the big-budgeted sci-fi films.
After Green and Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, and their co-stars went on a nationwide mall tour, the movie became a social media sensation, USA Today has learned.
Box Office Prophets analyst David Mumpower said "film industry experts began to realize that David was going to beat Goliath. In fact, Goliath did not even put up a fight."
Mumpower believed the mall tour and social media promotion played a significant role in the box office success of the movie.
"The popularity of this movie has effectively debuted a new business model," he said.
Online ticket retailer Fandango chief correspondent Dave Karger said "'The Fault in Our Stars' may not have the big budget or the tried-and-true star power of 'Edge of Tomorrow,' but its source material is a true phenomenon, the likes of which we don't see very often."
Karger believes although "Edge of Tomorrow" is a fantastic movie, "its fun premise was harder to describe in a poster or TV commercial" while "The Fault in our Stars" had a "built-in fan base thanks to the incredible success of the book and Shailene Woodley's rising star power."
Also, "Godzilla" ranked sixth at the box office this weekend with a total gross of $5.9 million, followed by "Neighbors" with $5.2 million, "Blended" with $4.1 million, "Chef" with $2.6, and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" with $1.9 million.
Box-office tracker Rentrak senior analyst Paul Dergarabedian told New York Daily News, "The notion of what is traditional summer fare is changing. Women and young girls are as vitally important to the box office in the summer as the young males, who Hollywood has courted and coveted for decades."
