“The Boss Baby” Beats “Beauty and the Beast” and Stuns with $50 Million Opening Weekend

	Film	Weekend	Opening Weekend	Current Gross
	The Boss Baby	$50.1m	$50.1m	$50.1m
	Beauty and the Beast	$45.4m	$174.7m	$393.3m
	Ghost in the Shell	$18.6m	$18.6m	$18.6m
	Power Rangers	$14.2m	$40.3m	$64.7m
	Kong: Skull Island	$8.5m	$61m	$147.6m

It wasn’t that Beauty and the Beast underperformed this weekend — far from it, actually — but simply that DreamWorks’ The Boss Baby far outperformed every expectation that had been put forth for it. Just how much of an overperformance was it? Some $15-20 million.

While looking back at it, it’s not much of a surprise — animated family films have a history of performing exceptionally well in their opening weekends, especially when they face little competition — the astounding showing The Boss Baby gave this weekend should not be brushed aside. Opening just over $50 million, Boss Baby became the ninth-highest opening for a DreamWorks Animation film and depending on its legs, could end up becoming one of the highest-grossing films for the company of all time (likely not in the realm of the Shrek franchise, but high nonetheless). In terms of more recent animated films, it opened just $3 million less than Warner Bros.’ The LEGO Batman Movie, $6 million less than Disney’s Moana, and $15 million more than Universal’s Sing. Plus, it also has international markets to consider, where the film has already made an additional $60 million. So Boss Baby is already doing well for itself and provided the Smurfs sequel doesn’t take away too much from it this weekend, it could go on to perform rather well.

DreamWorks Animation

Now, back to Beauty and the Beast, which, despite being knocked to second place, still performed very well. Once again dropping less than 50 percent, it made a solid $45 million, bringing its domestic total to just shy of $400 million. Worldwide, the live-action fairy tale is nearly to $875 million and should hit $1 billion in the next week or two. Between Disney’s most profitable live-action remakes, namely The Jungle Book and 2010’s Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast has already staked its claim as the highest-grossing, as the former’s domestic total came to $364 million and the latter’s to $334 million. Even more impressive, Beauty and the Beast‘s production budget was the lowest of the three, making its profit all the more rewarding.

Amid all the controversy, the new Scarlett Johansson action flick Ghost in the Shell performed slightly less than expected in its opening weekend. Predicted to land somewhere in the mid-20s, the film instead made $18.6 million. Johansson’s last outing as the lead in an action film, 2014’s Lucy, made $43.8 million in its opening weekend, showing just how glaring Ghost in the Shell‘s weak performance is. While impossible to say if it was specifically because of the whitewashing controversy, it’s hard not to think that the issue didn’t have any effect on the low turnout. There’s also the distinct possibility that the subject simply didn’t appeal to audiences. Either way, for a film made for $110 million, this opening is not a good sign and shows that the film will need to primarily rely on its international intake to make a profit. So far, it’s made $40 million overseas.

Lionsgate

Next up is Power Rangers, which suffered a drastic 64 percent drop in its second weekend. While most action blockbusters do tend to drop over 50 percent in their second weekends, this is a particularly large drop. Take, for example, some of the recent superhero action films like Logan and Doctor Strange, which had a 57 percent and 49.5 percent drop, respectively, compared to Suicide Squad, which dropped an astonishing 67 percent in its second weekend. However, Suicide Squad also has the highest domestic gross of the three — but it also had a$133 million opening, showing it started strong before suffering a steep drop, while the other two films had better performances over time. It’s hard to say which way Power Rangers will go, but it will likely start to drop off rather quickly and not have a large domestic gross. Worldwide, the film isn’t even to $100 million yet.

Bringing up the rear is, as expected, Kong: Skull Island. Dropping 41.5 percent, it made $8.5 million, almost exactly as predicted, and has brought its domestic total to $147.6 million. Globally, the film is just shy of $479 million and, even more, $500 million.

The other new film of the weekend, World War II drama The Zookeeper’s Wife, opened to $3.3 million in 541 theaters, and early reports have audiences responding well to the film.

(Source: boxoffice.com, boxofficemojo.com. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed.)

Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor