There’s a new king of the box office jungle. It’s a big one and just might make things difficult for movies over the next few weeks to defeat it.
Disney is off to a great start this year. Although ‘The Finest Hours’ didn’t do much, ‘Zootopia’ (which we’ll talk about shortly) has more than made up for that misstep. The studio’s new live-action ‘The Jungle Book‘ just opened to $103.5 million in North America. With a $175 million price tag, that’s exactly what Disney needed. And thanks to the high quality of the film, which is being praised by critics and audiences alike, it’s going to have a very healthy run. The movie’s international release kicked off ahead of the United States, and it’s also performing very well overseas with $187.4 million to date. That already gives the film a worldwide total of $290.9 million. With ‘Captain America: Civil War’, ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’, ‘Finding Dory’, ‘The BFG’ and ‘Pete’s Dragon’ slated for release before the end of summer, this is looking like it might be one of Disney’s very best years.
‘Barbershop: The Next Cut‘ finished its opening weekend in the #2 spot far behind ‘The Jungle Book’, but quite a bit ahead of the next closest competition. Despite arriving 12 years after the last ‘Barbershop’ movie, ‘The Next Cut’ was able to recoup its $20 million production cost over its first weekend. Not accounting for inflation, the first ‘Barbershop’ debuted to $20.6 million and the second to $24.2 million. In terms of opening weekend numbers, ‘The Next Cut’ is the weakest of the ‘Barbershop’ pictures, but it definitely shows that there’s still a market for the franchise.
Melissa McCarthy’s ‘The Boss‘ got demoted in its second week. The comedy may have knocked ‘Batman v. Superman’ out of the top spot last weekend, but it dropped 57% this weekend. The decline shows a lack of staying power, but it’s still not a loss for McCarthy and Universal. The movie’s $10.1 million second weekend brings its ten-day total up to $40.3 million, which is a positive for the $29 million R-rated picture.
Four weeks into its run, ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice‘ fell into the #4 spot. That’s another steep decline, this time of 61%. With that said, the additional $9 million brought the film’s domestic total up to $311.3 million. Overseas, it sits with $516 million, giving it a $827.3 million worldwide total.
Seven-week-old ‘Zootopia‘ rounded out the Top 5 with $8.2 million. It’s likely to fade away quickly now that ‘The Jungle Book’ is reeling in family audiences, but it’s had one hell of a run. To date, the film has made $307.4 million domestically and $574.8 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $882.2 million.
Lionsgate’s latest not-so-great thriller ‘Criminal‘ had a difficult time finding an opening weekend audience. Despite a well-known cast, it couldn’t overcome the obstacle of being Generic Sci-Fi Thriller #886. From 2,683 screens, it only nabbed $5.8 million and a sixth-place debut. The $31 million picture sat on a shelf for two years, but with co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot starring in two of the biggest hits of 2016 (‘Deadpool’ and ‘Batman v. Superman’ respectively), this weekend was as good a time as any to give ‘Criminal’ a shot on the big screen.
A24’s Neo-Nazi thriller ‘Green Room‘ saw great results from its limited three-screen opening. It managed to pull in $91,000 and a $30,333 per-screen average.
The Weinstein Company’s limited release of John Carney’s latest musical dramedy ‘Sing Street‘ wasn’t as successful as ‘Green Room’, but still has some potential. Without a single recognizable star in the cast, it earned $68,979 from five locations, equaling a $13,796 per-screen average.
Top 10:
1. ‘The Jungle Book’ (Buena Vista) – $103,567,000
2. ‘Barbershop: The Next Cut’ (Warner Bros.) – $20,210,000
3. ‘The Boss’ (Universal) – $10,170,000
4. ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (Warner Bros.) – $9,010,000
5. ‘Zootopia’ (Buena Vista) – $8,235,000
6. ‘Criminal’ (Lionsgate) – $5,850,000
7. ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2’ (Universal) – $3,260,000
8. ‘Miracles from Heaven’ (TriStar) – $1,900,000
9. ‘God’s Not Dead 2’ (Pure Flix) – $1,712,000
10. ‘Eye in the Sky’ (Beecker Street) – $1,561,998
