Decades after breaking baseball’s color barrier by running really, really fast at it, Jackie Robinson posthumously achieved his second-greatest triumph by besting a Scary Movie sequel, beginning an era of long, tumultuous, yet necessary social change. The Robinson biopic 42—which takes a hard look at the age before Brad Paisley and LL Cool J ended racism, and decides it was totally not cool—rode the universal appeal of uplifting movies about sports and not thinking too hard about things to a $27.3 million opening. That’s far ahead of the $15.2 million that Scary Movie 5 earned, in what is now the worst-ever opening for the franchise that will keep going anyway.
In fact, Scary Movie 5—based on all the things Harvey Weinstein’s panicked assistant blurted out when he asked what the people are into—opened behind even January’s A Haunted House, proving Marlon Wayans right that audiences prefer their farts artistically pure. Anyway, it’s safe to say Jackie Robinson’s latest victory will soon become legend, when the inevitable Scary Movie 6 finds a fake Jackie Robinson nailing a line drive right into Charlie Sheen’s nuts.
In limited release, Disconnect—the overlapping ensemble drama about a society fragmented by its addiction to the Internet—earned $124,000 on 15 screens that played in front of people checking Twitter on their phones. Meanwhile, on just three screens apiece, Ken Loach’s The Angels’ Share and the David Cross comedy It’s A Disaster scored $21,000 and $17,000, respectively, the latter similarly inspiring audiences by boldly making brunch safe for white people.
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.