Box office report: Audiences rehire The Boss Baby, Colossal has monster debut
The Boss Baby is putting in the work.
Across a relatively tame weekend, Fox’s animated comedy extends its winning streak over a weak crop of newcomers, pulling in a decent $26.3 million between Friday and Sunday. With $89.4 million already under its belt, The Boss Baby should cross the $100 million mark in the days ahead, in the process becoming 2017’s eighth picture to do so.
For the second week in a row, Disney’s live-action adaption of Beauty and the Beast again trails The Boss Baby by a small margin as it posts around $25 million after its fourth go-round with domestic audiences. The $160 million blockbuster broke March opening records last month and has gone on to become 2017’s top-earning movie worldwide, tallying an astonishing $977.4 million globally after just 24 days in theaters.
Beauty and the Beast‘s North American total sits at $432.3 million (No. 15 on the all-time U.S. and Canada chart), registering career-high grosses (unadjusted for inflation) for its director and most of its principal cast, including Emma Thompson, Dan Stevens, Stanley Tucci, and Emma Watson, who previously appeared in eight high-profile Harry Potter flicks.
Further down the top five are a pair of new releases: Smurfs: The Lost Village ($14 million) and the Zach Braff-directed heist comedy Going in Style ($12.5 million). The former’s gross likely signals an end to Sony/Columbia’s current Smurfs revival series, which has waned in popularity since the release of 2011’s The Smurfs, a worldwide hit that went on to make $563 million after a $35.6 million North American bow. Lukewarm critical reviews didn’t sway audience opinion, however, as polled moviegoers gave the film an A on CinemaScore, which could signal longer-than-usual legs, as The Lost Village is the last major studio animated title to hit wide release until Pixar’s Cars 3 drives into theaters this summer.
As expected, Going in Style likely captured the interest of the mature set on Friday, a demographic with taste that’s consistently difficult to predict, as industry prognosticators had initially pegged the film (which stars Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin, and Michael Caine) for a weekend in the $8-$10 million range.
Rounding out the top five is the Scarlett Johansson actioner Ghost in the Shell ($7.4 million), which takes a nasty tumble to the tune of 60.6 percent over its second weekend. Though its international grosses are still slightly padding its domestic underperformance (it has made $124.4 million worldwide on a $110 million budget), the film has a lot of ground to make up as it continues its global rollout.
Outside the top 10, Anne Hathaway’s brilliant kaiju comedy/addiction drama hybrid Colossal averages the highest per-theater number ($31,452) of the week, pulling in $125,809 from four domestic locations after sustaining glowing critical reviews dating back to its September 2016 world premiere at TIFF. The film marks Neon’s debut theatrical release, allowing the fledgling distributor to notch a specialty win over its freshman outing in North America.
Elsewhere, the Chris Evans-fronted drama Gifted — about a protective uncle fighting for a “normal” childhood experience for his niece, a mathematical child prodigy — opens to a solid $476,000 at 56 sites, averaging $8,500 per theater. The Japanese animated flick Your Name — which has amassed a staggering $328.7 million worldwide to date as one of Japan’s best-performing movies of all time — adds roughly $1.6 million to its ballooning total after opening Friday at 303 domestic locations.
Per comScore, overall box office is up roughly 5.5 percent from the same frame last year. Check out the April 7-9 weekend estimates below.
1 – The Boss Baby – $26.3 million
2 – Beauty and the Beast – $25 million
3 – Smurfs: The Lost Village – $14 million
4 – Going in Style – $12.5 million
5 – Ghost in the Shell – $7.4 million
6 – Power Rangers – $6.2 million
7 – Kong: Skull Island – $5.8 million
8 – Logan – $4.1 million
9 – Get Out – $4 million
10 – The Case for Christ – $3.9 million