Box Office Weekend: Equalizer Dominates Box Trolls

The one constant through all the years has been Denzel Washington. The star system as we know it is in tatters, the concept of the studio programmer and mid-budget drama has given away to animated spectaculars and mega-budget fantasy franchises.

Despite this, Washington managed to obliterate all competition. Critics were lukewarm about the new film revival of the character as played by Denzel Washington, but audiences were interested enough to give it a decent number one opening.

At $35 million “The Equalizer” is one of the larger in recent history for Washington and the largest ever for director Antoine Fuqua. It also puts the movie in decent range to break even given its $55 million production budget.

Young adult drama The Maze Runner took second place, earning $17.5 million from Friday through Sunday, after winning the box office race last weekend. “The Box Trolls” received a less enthusiastic welcome, banking just $17 million for a third place debut.

In “The Equalizer,” Denzel plays McCall, a former special ops agent who goes up against Russian gangsters who have ensnared a young prostitute, played by Chloë Grace Moretz, in a human trafficking ring. It reunited the star with Antoine Fuqua, who directed him in “Training Day,” which won Denzel a best actor Oscar.

According to Variety, it’s the third-best opening of the actor’s career behind 2007′s “American Gangster” and the 2012 hit “Safe House.”

“I’m pretty confident there will be a sequel,’ Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures president of worldwide distribution, told Variety. ‘From the beginning, as the story began to unfold, it had possible franchise written all over it.”