This film image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson in a scene from “42.” Kansas City’s Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is hosting an advance screening of an upcoming movie about Jackie Robinson, who broke major league baseball’s color barrier. Thomas Butch of the financial firm Waddell and Reed announced Wednesday, March 20, 2013, that actors Harrison Ford and Andre Holland will be among those appearing at an April 11 screening of “42.” The film chronicles Robinson’s rise from the Negro Leagues’ Kansas City Monarchs in 1945 to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, when he won the inaugural Rookie of the Year award. The film opens nationwide on April 12. (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Pictures, D. Stevens)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Baseball has scored a rare hit in Hollywood as the Jackie Robinson tale “42” took in $27.3 million to claim the weekend box-office championship.
The Warner Bros. film biography easily beat an established franchise in “Scary Movie 5.” According to studio estimates Sunday, the Weinstein Co. sequel opened in second-place with $15.2 million, the smallest debut for the horror-comedy series.
Three of the previous four “Scary Movie” installments had debuts of $40 million or more.
On the other hand, “42” outdid the usual expectations for baseball movies, which usually do modest business at best. Box-office trackers had expected “42” to pull in less than $20 million.
The film stars Chadwick Boseman as Robinson and Harrison Ford as Brooklyn Dodgers boss Branch Rickey, who brought No. 42 into the Major Leagues.
