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

BOX OFFICE REPORT

April 22-24, 2016

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

The Jungle Book  $60.8 million
The Huntsman: Winter's War  $20.0 million
Barbershop: The Next Cut $10.8 million
Zootopia $6.6 million
The Boss $6.0 million

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.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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