Weekend Box Office: Trust in Disney

Disney not only topped the domestic box office for the third week in a row, the studio also destroyed all competition overseas with an early release of Marvel’s latest.

Six months ago, did anyone guess that the live-action remake of ‘The Jungle Book‘ would be as successful and acclaimed as it has been? I sure didn’t. The film has risen far above its competition each of the three weeks since it opened. This weekend’s draw only declined a light 31% in attendance with another $42.4 million. To date, the king of the box office has earned $252 million domestically and $432.7 million overseas, bringing its worldwide total up to $684.7 million.

Distantly behind that was ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War‘ in the #2 spot. Dropping 52%, the movie’s second week resulted in $9.3 million. With a pricy $115 million budget yet a domestic ten-day total of just $33.9 million, it’s estimated that Universal will lose around $70 million due to this failure. You don’t need a magical mirror to tell you to end the aspiring franchise here.

The strongest of the weekend’s new movies found itself in the #3 position. Key & Peele’s R-rated goofball comedy ‘Keanu‘ claimed $9.3 million from nearly 2,700 screens. With a price tag of $15 million, the so-so opening isn’t terrible, but it also isn’t great. Whether it’s a good enough opening to hire the hilarious guys back for another feature film is still up in the air.

Garry Marshall’s holiday-themed dramedies sink lower and lower with each installment. The second one, ‘New Year’s Eve‘, grossed 77% less than ‘Valentine’s Day‘. Now, ‘Mother’s Day‘ opened with 36% less than the last one and 85% less than the first. Those percentages make ‘The Huntsman’ look like a franchise hit in comparison. ‘Mother’s Day’ pulled $8.3 million from more than 3,000 locations, giving it fourth-place debut and a per-screen average of $2,736. Let’s hope this franchise is officially over.

Barbershop: The Next Cut‘ rounded out the Top 5 with a $6.1 million third week. That brings its domestic total up to $44.7 million. While the numbers aren’t as strong as previous ‘Barbershop’ movies, they’re good enough for a cheap comedy like this.

Although the weekend’s third wide release targeted kids and family audiences, it couldn’t out-perform Disney’s nine-week-old ‘Zootopia‘, which finished in the #6 spot with another $5 million. Meanwhile, ‘Ratchet & Clank‘ opened in the #7 spot with $4.8 million. With a $20 million budget, the flop also heralds a quick ending to this potential franchise.

Jason Bateman’s latest directorial effort, ‘The Family Fang‘, had the strongest per-screen average of the entire weekend. From just one screen, the R-rated drama grossed $15,285.

Weekend numbers have yet to be released for the IMAX space documentary ‘A Beautiful Planet’.

Overseas, the big winner was ‘Captain America: Civil War‘, which opened one week ahead of its domestic kick-off. Not even playing in all markets, the latest Marvel installment pulled in $200 million and is on track to play in the same leagues as ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron‘. Let’s just hope that it’s a better movie than ‘Ultron’. More details to come when it opens this weekend.

Top 10:

1. ‘The Jungle Book’ (Buena Vista) – $42,439,000

2. ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ (Universal) – $9,390,000

3. ‘Keanu’ (Warner Bros.) – $9,350,000

4. ‘Mother’s Day’ (Open Road) – $8,302,319

5. ‘Barbershop: The Next Cut’ (Warner Bros.) – $6,125,000

6. ‘Zootopia’ (Buena Vista) – $5,006,000

7. ‘Ratchet & Clank’ (Focus) – $4,823,000

8. ‘The Boss’ (Universal) – $4,250,000

9. ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (Warner Bros.) – $3,810,000

10. ‘Criminal’ (Lionsgate) – $1,325,000

1 comment

  1. theHDphantom

    Wow. I didn’t even know about this Ratchet and Clank movie until yesterday. Never heard a peep about it. Not even a TV spot. No wonder why it has bombed at the box office. Maybe it’ll do better on video and digital.

    And I think Universal will be fine financially with losing money on The Huntsmen. I mean, they hit it big last year with Furious 7 and Jurassic World. They can afford to take a loss with that one right now.

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