Home Entertainment Weekend Box Office Report: The Boss Baby beats Beauty and the Beast, Ghost in the Shell stumbles

Weekend Box Office Report: The Boss Baby beats Beauty and the Beast, Ghost in the Shell stumbles

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Wait, April Fool’s Day was two days ago! Stop with the bad jokes now!… Oh… this isn’t a joke? Dreamworks Animations’ The Boss Baby actually did beat Disney’s record-breaking behemoth Beauty and the Beast at the US box office? Well I’ll be damned.

The animated family comedy, which sees Alec Baldwin voicing a suit-wearing baby who is a secret agent in the war between babies and puppies (no, really), was predicted to only debut in the $30 million range. Instead though, the movie wildly exceeded all expectations as it opened in the US to a very successful $49 million. The film is actually packed with star power, from characters voiced by Steve Buscemi, Tobey Maguire, Jimmy Kimmel, and Lisa Kudrow, to having an original musical score composed by Hans Zimmer. And all of that hasn’t come cheap as the film notched up a $125 million price tag, meaning that this surprise success – which can add another $59 million from international markets – is surely appreciated.

As for Beauty and the Beast, it was actually just barely dethroned as it had a $47.5 million weekend haul. Not that the Disney live-action remake of the animated classic is really in massive need of extra revenue – its global tally is currently sitting on $876 million after just 17 days! With numbers like that though, it makes Boss Baby’s achievement to dethrone it even more impressive.

Which is the exact opposite of what happened to Ghost in the Shell. Critics have been divided (even us!) over the live-action feature film adaptation of the acclaimed anime/manga, and combined with the controversy the movie’s alleged whitewashed casting has generated, it would seem that lots of audiences members decided to rather stay away. Or probably watch Boss Baby instead. Whatever the reason, Ghost in the Shell officially flopped in the US, where it opened to an iffy $19 million.

Now we’ve seen much smaller debuts this year already and the movie actually made another $40 million internationally, but that’s still a fair bit away from matching its $110 million production budget (not to mention its advertising budget which can probably add at least another $50 million to the tab). Ghost in the Shell underperforming like this will of course be potent fuel for the most hardened critics of the film’s casting who already didn’t buy into the story that the movie needed a white actress like Scarlett Johansson to headline a traditionally Asian movie to be profitable. It will be intriguing to see how Hollywood responds to this.

Also noted in the “underperforming” category this week is Power Rangers. While the surprisingly fun feature film adaptation had a very good $40 million opening, it dropped a massive 60% in its second week with just $14 million. While its global box office total is already sitting just a couple of million short of its $100 million production budget, this lack of longevity at the top of the charts is certainly going to give Lionsgate pause (paws?) when it comes to their ambitious franchise plans.

Rounding off the box office news is the only other newcomer on the charts as The Zookeeper’s Wife held down the very tail end of the top ten. The based on a true story drama starring Jessica Chastain was only made for $20 million and had a very limited release, which is why studio execs are “very happy with our opening weekend” of $3.3 million despite the low number.

Let’s see what the rest of the US box office chart looks like:

No.Movie Name Weekend gross Percentage change Domestic gross Worldwide gross Last Week's Position
1Boss Baby $49 million NA $49 million $59 million NE
2Beauty and the Beast $47.54 million -47.4% $395.45 million $876.25 million 1st
3Ghost in the Shell $19 million NA $19 million $59.1 million NE
4Power Rangers $14.5 million -64% $65.06 million $97.76 million 2nd
5Kong: Skull Island $8.8 million -40% $147.84 million $477.34 million 3rd
6Logan $6.2 million -40% $211.86 million $585.42 million 5th
7Get Out $5.81 million -34.3% $156.58 million $167.18 6th
8Life $5.65 million -55% $22.36 million $50.9 million 4th
9CHiPs $4.05 million -47.5% $14.36 million $18.26 million 7th
10The Zookeeper's Wife $3.34 million NA $3.34 million $3.51 million NE
(NA = Not Applicable, NE = New Entry)

 

 

Last Updated: April 10, 2017

8 Comments

  1. Kromas Ryder

    April 3, 2017 at 12:35

    The trick to enjoying GitS is to walk in knowing it will never be as good as the original. That way I really had fun watching it.

    Reply

    • miaau

      April 3, 2017 at 14:54

      sound advice, in general, for watching movies, I think.

      Reply

  2. For the Emperor!

    April 3, 2017 at 13:13

    Some of my friends specifically did not want to see GitS due to the negative SJW press, regardless of reviews and the potential of the movie. It seems this SJW internet generation can derail something very easily regardless of the merits of their case (look at the Youtube advertising issue). I still want to go see it, but was busy this weekend, as all I remember from the original GitS was some music video that used it.

    Reply

    • miaau

      April 3, 2017 at 14:53

      Yeah, people in my office said the same thing, they did not go see it to “take a stand”. Against, what, I asked? No real, straight answer. Seems that taking a stand is the thing here.

      The younger people seemed to be the “take a stand” crowd, older did not mind so much, but older peoples, like me, are willing to wait for the DVD, Netfllix, DSTV release.

      Reply

    • Sock-puppet

      April 3, 2017 at 15:30

      If it makes you feel better I couldn’t care less about the whitewashing, it’s Scarlett that bothers me. However, the big thing that I don’t like about the movie is the narrative changes that have been made, it’s just not the same.

      Reply

  3. HvR

    April 3, 2017 at 13:38

  4. miaau

    April 3, 2017 at 14:52

    For me, I want to watch Ghost in the Shell simply because: Action movie with Ms Johansson. I am not a huge Ghost in the Shell expert or follower, so all that is tossed aside. I know many people were angry over choices made in producing this move.

    AND I would keep toddlers away from Boss Baby, might give them ideas.

    Reply

    • Andre116

      April 4, 2017 at 13:20

      I went to watch it GitS over the weekend and quite enjoyed it. I’ve seen the original and am not too bothered that it did not follow it scene by scene. Was a fun movie. Ending was a little underwhelming I’ll admit.

      Reply

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