Weekend Wrap-Up: Boss Blasts Off while Ghost Cracks
April 4, 2017
The Boss Baby beat expectations and earned first place with $50.20 million over the weekend. The strong competition pushed Beauty and the Beast into second place, but it nearly hit $400 million and it is on pace for $500 million, so I wouldn’t feel too bad for the film. On the other hand, you can feel bad for Ghost in the Shell, because an opening of just $18.68 million on a $110 million production budget is a disaster. Overall, the box office rose 16% from last week reaching $169 million. Compared to last year, the box office rose 28%, which is very impressive. Year-to-date, 2017 has pulled in $2.98 billion, putting it 6.1% or $170 million ahead of 2016’s pace. We are far enough into the year that a lead this big is significant. That doesn’t mean 2017 is guaranteed to come out ahead, but this is certainly reason to be optimistic.
The Boss Baby had an amazing weekend opening in top spot with $50.20 million. Its reviews climbed to nearly 50% positive, while it earned an A minus from CinemaScore. This suggests it will have good legs. On the other hand, Smurfs: The Lost Village opens on Friday and the direct competition will hurt. I think the studio will be happy with $150 million domestically.
Beauty and the Beast was pushed into second place with $45.42 million over the weekend lifting its running tally to $393.34 million. Direct competition hurt it over the weekend, but its theater average is still over $10,000, so it is not going to lose many theaters this coming weekend.
Ghost in the Shell struggled in third place earning just $18.68 million. Its reviews are mixed at 44% positive and it only managed a B on CinemaScore, so it likely won’t have strong legs. It will likely start losing theaters when The Fate of the Furious hits theaters in two weeks. It will do better internationally, but not by enough to cover its $110 million production budget. This is bad news for Paramount Pictures, which hasn’t had a great past few years. They haven’t topped $1 billion domestically since 2015 and haven’t earned better than 10% market share since 2011. If the next Transformers movie isn’t a $300 million hit, then people could lose their jobs.
Power Rangers fell 65% to just $14.20 million over the weekend for a total of $64.76 million after two weeks of release. Clearly the Fanboy Effect was in full swing here. The film would need to fall less than 50% this coming weekend to have any hope of hitting $100 million domestically. Unless the film has caused a boom in Power Rangers merchandise, it won’t break even any time soon and I don’t think there will be the planned sequels.
Kong: Skull Island rounded out the top five with $8.59 million over the weekend for a total of $147.64 million after four weeks of release. Combine its domestic and international hauls and the film has likely earned enough to cover its entire production budget. It still needs to pay for its global advertising budget, but that seems likely on the home market. It isn’t a monster hit, but it has done enough to justify a sequel.
Looking in on the sophomore class, we find Life and CHiPs back-to-back in eighth and ninth places respectively. Life fell 55% to just $5.59 million over the weekend for a total of $22.34 million after two weeks of release. It deserved better. CHiPs fell 47% to $4.09 million over the weekend for a ten-day total of $14.40 million. Frankly, this is better than its reviews are.
Finally, we get to The Zookeeper’s Wife, which scored tenth place with $3.29 million, despite playing in just 541 theaters. The studio announced it is going to accelerate its expansion, but its reviews might limit its legs.
- Ghost in the Shell Comparisons
- The Boss Baby Comparisons
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, CHiPS, Smurfs: The Lost Village, The Boss Baby, Kong: Skull Island, Power Rangers, Ghost in the Shell, Beauty and the Beast, The Zookeeper’s Wife, Life