By Chris Kavan - 04/02/17 at 08:35 PM CT
The family audience looks like they were content to support both a new entry and still more than happy to continue supporting an old friend as well. Things weren't so rosy for Scarlett Johansson as her latest film grossed less than half of what Lucy opened with three years ago. It was also a reality check for Power Rangers, which looked solid in its opening weekend but took a brutal tumble in its second week out. But not all movies took a big hit as Kong, Logan and Get Out continued to find successs several weeks after their respective debuts. It's going to be a race to see what movies survive long enough to face the wrath of The Fate of the Furious.
1) THE BOSS BABY
What the Boss Baby wants, the Boss Baby gets and casting Alec Baldwin was a stroke of genius that could only have helped the Dreamworks Animated title best all pre-weekend estimates and top Beauty and the Beast for the top spot at a cool $49 million. As it stands, that is the 10th best opening for a Dreamworks animated film (the fourth-best non-sequel), and could rise on that list if actuals come in a bit higher. Audiences loved it, giving the film an "A-" Cinemascore (which, as seems par for the course this year, rises to an "A+" for those under 18). It drew 53% female and 62% under 25. It had a very similar opening to Home ($52.1 million) - which went on to earn $175 million domestic though, it should be noted, Boss Baby does face much greater competition with the upcoming Smurfs: The Lost Village and animated Spark on the horizon. Still, it's looking like Boss Baby should hit $150 million on its run - a move that means Dreamworks is very well equipped to fight right alongside Disney and Illumination in the animated business.
2)
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
After dominating the top of the box office for the past two weeks, Disney's mega-hit had to settle for second place, but not by much. Beauty and the Beast took a minor 47.4% hit in its third weekend and still picked up $47.54 million, raising its total to $395.5 million. It will hit the $400 million mark in the next day or so, and is closely following the pattern of The Dark Knight (which ultimately ended its run with $533.3 million back in 2008). Adding another $66.5 million overseas, the live-action remake stands at $876.3 million worldwide, topping the likes of Batman v Superman ($873 million) and The Secret Life of Pets ($875 million). We'll see if it can break $1 billion by next week but it still has plenty of gas left in the tank (and Japan on April 21st) so this monster is far from over.
3)
GHOST IN THE SHELL
With middling reviews and a general lack of an enthusiastic fan base, Ghost in the Shell opened well under most box office predictions with a mere $19 million in third place. That represents less than half of the $43.8 million that Scarlett Johansson's Lucy opened with in 2014, and even that was considered a disappointment back in the day. I had high hopes for this adaptation, but I don't think the Ghost in the Shell name carries that big of name in the U.S. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing how this compares to the anime, even if it failed to impress much in its opening. Audiences awarded it a "B" Cinemascore, and it had a 61% male audience. Another hit against this in the long run is that the R-rated Lucy had a mere $40 million budget while Ghost in the Shell sits at a $110 million budget. It's going to have to rely on a bigger international presence, and it opens in both Japan and China next weekend - so we'll see if that whitewashing allegation really hurts it in the Asian markets. In any case, it's another case of a great anime turned mediocre film - if we ever see an Akira live-action film, I have a sneaking suspicion it's going to turn out exactly the same way.
4)
POWER RANGERS
After a bigger-than-expected $40.3 million debut, Power Rangers looked to have a franchise tag written all over it. But, hold up a minute, maybe it jumped the gun. With a second week drop of 64%, Power Rangers could only add another $14.5 million to its total, which now stands at just over $65 million. The $100 million film looked like it was well on its way to hitting its cost easily, but now it may struggle to make it to $100 million at all. Its worldwide total is fast-approaching the $100 million mark and, depending on how it does overseas, we could still be looking at a Power Rangers sequel down the road, it's just that things don't looks as concrete as they did after its impressive opening weekend.
5)
KONG: SKULL ISLAND
Rounding out the top five, the great ape of Kong: Skull Island had a nice fourth-weekend hold, dropping just 40% and adding $8.8 million to its total. It wound up at just under $150 million with a $147.8 million total. Its worldwide total is also just shy of a milestone, as it sits at just under $500 million on that front. While it may not be able to top its $185 million budget in the U.S. alone, combined with its great international numbers, Kong will have no problem in keeping up with the other monsters as it has a good chance of topping Godzilla ($527 million) and King Kong ($550 million) in the long run. I can't wait to see what happens when both beasts come together down the line.
Outside the top five: Not quite having a nationwide expansion (that will be upcoming), The Zookeeper's Wife opened in the top 10 in 541 theaters with a $3.34 million debut. It was going to roll out slower, but with those results, it will add 200-300 more theaters and go wide next week instead.
Get Out had another remarkable hold (down just 34.3%) and crossed the $150 mark with a $5.8 million 7th place finish and a new $156.8 million total. By the way, that is almost 35 times its $4.5 million budget and even if it won't be the highest-grossing film of the year, it will certainly be one of (if not the) best cost vs. total gross films of 2017.
The feel-good, faith-based The Shack also crossed a milestone, earning $2.17 million (11th place) and crossing the $50 million mark with a new $53 million total.
Next week sees the release of Smurfs: The Lost Village, another faith-based film in The Case for Christ, geriatric comedy/crime Going in Style and, as previously mentioned the expansion of the WWII drama The Zookeeper's Wife.
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