Weekend Box Office: Who’s the Boss?

One of this weekend’s new movies managed to do the impossible. Not only did it wildly out-gross expectations, it put down the Beast. The week’s other wide release underperformed, while each of last week’s titles stumbled during their sophomore outings.

I didn’t think I’d be saying this, but the #1 movie in America is ‘The Boss Baby‘. DreamWorks’ latest family flick dethroned the two-week reigning champ, ‘Beauty and the Beast’. From 3,733 screens, ‘Boss Baby’ grossed $49 million, more than $13 million above Friday’s industry prediction. After two weeks at the international box office, it has also drawn $59 million overseas. The $125 million animated movie has a worldwide total of $108 million so far. While that’s a great start, it will face tough competition from the latest ‘Smurfs’ movie that opens this Friday.

This weekend’s 47% drop resulted in a narrow defeat for ‘Beauty and the Beast‘. The film’s third week resulted in $47.5 million, putting it in second place. Its nationwide cumulative total is up to $395.4 million and its international gross is up to $480.8 million. With a worldwide gross already beyond $876.2 million, it won’t be long before Disney has the first film of the year to cross the $1 billion mark.

Despite being an adaptation of popular and nerd-friendly source material, the $110 million ‘Ghost in the Shell‘ remake failed to meet expectations. The Scarlett Johansson sci-fi action flick debuted in third place with $19 million. Fortunately, international markets are kinder to whitewashing. The picture openend to $40.1 million overseas, for a worldwide kick-off of $59.1 million. The international launch is still in its early phases, so overseas numbers will likely continue to rise.

Last weekend’s surprise hit ‘Power Rangers‘ showed poor box office stamina. Dropping a massive 64%, it drew $14.5 million and ended up in the #4 spot. The $100 million reboot has made $65 million domestically and $32.7 million internationally, giving it a worldwide sum of $97.7 million. There are still plenty of markets in which it has yet to open, but let’s hope the studio goes from saying “Go Go” to “No No” regarding sequels.

In its fourth week, ‘Kong: Skull Island‘ rounded out the Top 5 with $8.8 million, which brings its North American total up to $147.8 million. That still isn’t enough to cover its $185 million production cost. International moviegoers have fed the monster $329.5 million, placing its worldwide total at $477.3 million.

Last weekend’s ‘Life‘ and ‘CHIPS‘ also took big hits. The two respectively finished in the #8 and #9 positions with $5.6 million and $4 million. The $58 million sci-fi thriller ‘Life’ has a global gross of $50.9 million, while the $25 million ‘CHIPS’ has a worldwide total of $18.2 million.

Focus Features’ new drama ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife‘ saw a solid debut from 541 screens. Its $3.3 million domestic opening was strong enough that Focus will expand the film at a faster rate than originally planned. If it’s not playing in your area now, it’s likely to invade this weekend.

Top 10:

1. ‘The Boss Baby’ (Fox) – $49,000,000

2. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (Buena Vista) – $47,543,000

3. ‘Ghost in the Shell’ (Paramount) – $19,000,000

4. ‘Power Rangers’ (Lionsgate) – $14,500,000

5. ‘Kong: Skull Island’ (Warner Bros.) – $8,800,000

6. ‘Logan’ (Fox) – $6,200,000

7. ‘Get Out’ (Universal) – $5,813,715

8. ‘Life’ (Sony) – $5,625,000

9. ‘CHiPs’ (Warner Bros.) – $4,055,000

10. ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’ (Focus) – $3,349,475

8 comments

  1. Barsoom Bob

    My two cents, I saw Ghost in the Shell and quite enjoyed it. Thoughtful and action-y. Not that familar with the source, but the more existential things are in there and it even managed to bring a tear to my eyes with one little quiet scene. Anyone who is worried that it is another Aeon Flux, it much better than that.

  2. Why did anyone go see the Boss Baby, even my 5 year old isnt interested in that one. Looked terrible from the trailers and usually Dreamworks is pretty decent, why are we getting this when we should already have How to Train Your Dragon 3???

    • NJScorpio

      I really, really, have no intention of starting down this road with this subject…but Alec Baldwin has had a spike in popularity, and perhaps someone people thought that the “Boss Baby” character was something more than it actually was.

        • NJScorpio

          Not that the story would be about a baby president, but If you know nothing about the story, you just hear Alec Baldwin doing the voice of this Boss Baby character. I think it can reasonably be inferred that there is some degree of skewering going on there, even if there isn’t. Would Alec have even been hired as the voice actor if not for his current SNL popularity? I’m surprised that isn’t already a utilized nick name.

          • A big animated movie like this typically takes four to six years to produce, and Baldwin’s lines were likely recorded quite a while back so that the animation could be synced to them. All of that long predates his SNL gig. I’m sure the success of that is just a fortuitous coincidence, which the studio has tried to take advantage of with the marketing.

          • NJScorpio

            Josh Z – I know what your saying about turn over time for an animated movie…but does the movie going public really know that? I’m not saying the movie was made in any way to reflect what is going on currently, but I could see the loose association drawing crowds.

          • EM

            I just saw this headline on a French news site: “Baby Boss, patron du box-office français dès sa première semaine”. It tells us that The Boss Baby has been boss at the French box office over the past week. Baldwin’s not at all in the French dub. (His substitute sounds to me more like a gangster than a legitimate businessman.) True, the un-dubbed version is also playing in France (’cause, ya know, it’d be a shame to compromise the artists’ vision)…but I’m not sure Baldwin’s turn as Trump is quite so meaningful over there. My guess is that, worldwide, people are going to see this movie because, incredibly, they actually want to see an animated lowbrow comedy based on this movie’s premise.

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