“The Jungle Book” Pounces on “The Huntsman: Winter’s War”

The Jungle Book kept audiences enthralled for another weekend, falling only 41 percent for a haul of $60.8 million. That’s a remarkable hold, the best of any of the year’s live-action blockbusters. It’s already the fourth-biggest movie of the year, and seems destined for at least $300 million domestic, if not more. It could end up as Jon Favreau’s biggest movie ever, even more than Iron Man 1 or 2.

That was more than triple what The Huntsman: Winter’s War made over the weekend. The prequel to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman couldn’t even muster what that film made in its second weekend. It will probably make up for its disappointing gross with a much larger take overseas, but this will likely go down as an expensive underperformer.

Barbershop 3 kept seeing customers, but it won’t even come within a close shave of Barbershop or Back in Business. Meanwhile, at Zootopia’s pace, it’s likely to overtake Batman v Superman for the year’s No. 2 film. That’s better than The Boss is doing. At the rate it’s falling, it won’t even make as much as Tammy.

Outside the top 5:

• This Weekend's Indie Champ: Green Room, Jeremy Saulnier’s vicious punks vs. neo-Nazis thriller, stayed on top again. Expanding into 30 theaters, the violent film averaged $7,167.
• Elvis & Nixon and A Hologram for the King opened in limited release and had little marketing. This despite the fact both starred two-time Oscar winners (Kevin Spacey in the former and Tom Hanks in the latter). Elvis & Nixon managed a weak $456,793 while A Hologram for the King made only $1.2 million. Both earned less than Compadres, a Spanish-language comedy playing on even fewer screens. That film took in $1.3 million, good enough for ninth place.
• Hardcore Henry had a decidedly un-hardcore run. It had a weak debut, then plummeted in week two. Now, it shed more screens in its third week than any movie except for Eddie Murphy’s legendary disaster Meet Dave.

Next week:

Keanu – the first feature from the creative team behind Key & Peele – seems destined for cult status. Mother’s Day might be a big comedy hit like Valentine’s Day, although the follow-up New Year’s Eve was a big flop. Ratchet & Clank has been weirdly under-advertised. All that means is The Jungle Book will remain on top with around $30 million.