The Big Flop Theory! Melissa Rauch's The Bronze makes just $361 per cinema... as Zootopia tops US box office for third week

She is one of the stars of America's most popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

But that did not stop Melissa Rauch's R-rated gymnastics comedy The Bronze from being a dismal flop after taking in an embarrassing $361 per cinema on its first week of release.

The picture's dismal $421,434 opening gross at in 1,167 theatres nationwide was a world away from that of Zootopia, which raked in a whopping $38 million as it topped the North American box office for the third week running.

Backflipping out: Melissa Rauch's The Bronze makes just $361 per cinema on its opening week

The Bronze tells the story of a foul-mouthed former gymnastics bronze medalist, played by Melissa, who has been using her fame to live the easy life in her hometown.

So much for The Bronze: It did not even manage to crack the US box office top 10

Her existence consists of free meals and raiding the mail her postman father delivers for money until a young star athlete emerges who could surpass her own achievement.

When she is offered $500,000 to get her ready for the Olympics, she instead pockets the cash and tries to sabotage young charge's training to protect her own position.

There was some forewarning distributors Sony Pictures Classics had anything but a classic on its hands, as the Rotten Tomatoes consensus says the film is, 'Enthusiastically unpleasant and mostly unfunny, The Bronze fails to stick the landing – or much else along the way.'

In contrast Zooptopia continued to trample rivals in its third weekend in theaters, this week crushing the launch of Allegiant, the third film in the successful Divergent series.

The movie's $38M take was a fall of just 26 per cent on the previous week, and it has now earned an impressive $201.8M domestically.

The film tells the story of a bunny who becomes the first rabbit to make the police force in a world populated by anthropomorphic mammals. 

The children's film stole the thunder from The Divergent Series: Allegiant, which opened in second place with an estimated $29.1 million from 3,740 locations.

This is a new low for the series, which is based on Veronica Roth's young adult novels, which both opened north of $50 million.

Slow-burner: The audience for Zootopia is falling at a sloth-like rate as it topped the chart for the third week

In what fans may have perceived as a cynical cash-grab ploy, Lionsgate broke up Roth's final book into two movies, the second of which, Ascendant, launches next year.

When Twilight and The Hunger Games followed the same strategy part one of the two-film finales fell short of the preceding film in the series.

ComScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said: 'It's had mixed results in general, but it's also had great results so I can't really fault a studio for going with that strategy.

'It's like skipping ahead in a book. I think it's a strategy that may want to be reconsidered. But there are other factors — is the movie good? What are the conditions of the marketplace?

Misfire: The Divergent Series: Allegiant failed to secure the top spot after a disappointing opening

'They're chasing an audience that is very difficult to pin down. What might be cool to them one day isn't cool the next.'

While Allegiant disappointed, the same could not be said for Sony's Miracles From Heaven.

The Jennifer Garner vehicle took third place this weekend with an impressive $15 million, and when its Wednesday opening is taken into account it has earned $18.6M.

Given it cost a paltry $13 million to produce, it is well on the way to being a financial success, especially with the Easter weekend just around the corner.

Praise be: The religious themed Miracles From Heaven has already earned more than its budget after raking in $18.6 million

Dergarabedian believes having Ben Affleck's ex-wife involved seems to have been a boon.

He said: "These films are a home run in terms of having modest budgets and an audience, but star power does make a difference.

Low-budget horror film 10 Cloverfield Lane, which Producer JJ Abrams insists is a 'spiritual sequel to surprise hit Cloverfield, was fourth after earning $12.5 million. 

The Star Wars filmmaker is surely now rubbing his hands together once more, as the $15M budgeted film already has a domestic total of $45.2M after two week.  

The Misery-esque plot tells the story of a young woman who wakes form a car accident to find herself in the basement of a man who claims to have saved her from a chemical attack that made the outside uninhabitable

No Misery here: 10 Cloverfield Lane was fourth after earning $12.5 million

R-rated comic book film Deadpool's continued to defy expectations by earning $8M, taking its total to $336.1M.

It has now overtaken both Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man 3 and ranks eighth highest-grossing comic book adaptation of all time, though this does not take inflation into account. Worldwide the movie, which cost $58M to make, has grossed $340.9M. 

Sacha Baron Cohen's disastrous The Brothers Grimsby continued to flop in it second week, making just $1.4M nationwide, taking its North American total to $5.9M. 

The movie is said to have cost more than $60M to make before rebates.

Pool the other one: The Ryan Reynolds film has overtaken both Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man 3 to rank as the eighth highest-grossing comic book adaptation of all time