‘Maze Runner’ sequel outpaces ‘Black Mass’ at box office

NEW YORK (AP) — "The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials" edged out Johnny Depp's "Black Mass" at the weekend box office, as a crowded field of films kicked off the fall movie season.

Jenny Gabrielle, from left, Dylan O'Brien and Rosa Salazar appear in a scene from the film, "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials." (Richard Foreman, Jr./20th Century Fox via AP)

The sequel from 20th Century Fox to "The Maze Runner" earned an estimated $30.3 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. While that came in slightly below the debut of the 2014 young-adult dystopian sci-fi original, it counted as a win for a movie that cost $61 million to make.

Warner Bros.' "Black Mass," starring Johnny Depp as Boston gangster Whitey Bulger, premiered with $23.4 million. That's a strong sum for an R-rated adult drama, and it stabilizes a bad box-office run for Depp following "Mortdecai," ''Transcendence" and "The Lone Ranger."

In a medium-sized release, Universal's 3-D mountaineering thriller "Everest" opened with $7.6 million.

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