“Boss Baby” Dominates Box Office Again

The Boss Baby made patty-cake of its competition once again this weekend, taking in an estimated $26.3 million. It's yet to cross $100 million, but it's about in line with where DreamWorks Animation’s last few films (Home, Kung Fu Panda 3, Trolls) have done. They really haven't had the world-beating hits that Disney has enjoyed the last several years.

Speaking of Disney's world-beating hits, Beauty and the Beast is now the 15th-biggest movie of all time in the U.S. This is probably the last week it will make big money, but I wouldn't be surprised if it crosses $500 million before it leaves theaters. That would make it only the 8th movie to ever do that here. If nothing else, it will least pass both the original Star Wars and The Phantom Menace to earn a spot in the top 10.

Smurfs: The Lost Village didn't lose too much by going animation-only. The 2013 film that proceeded this one only earned $17.5 million, which was half of what the 2011 reboot debuted with. Based on this showing, this is probably the last Smurfs movie that will hit theaters. But I wouldn't be surprised if some straight-to-video films or a Netflix series is announced any day now. That's more than you can say for Going in Style, a caper comedy remake that united three Oscar winners (plus Zach Braff directing for some reason) and failed to produce much magic. Still, it will probably hold fairly well next week, since it's aimed at an older crowd who don't care that much about seeing a movie on opening weekend. In fact, it will probably end up making more money than Ghost in the Shell, which tumbled 60 percent to finish in fifth place.

Outside the top 5:

• This Weekend's Indie Champ: Colossal, the Anne Hathaway sci-fi/comedy that's been getting great reviews. It average $31,452 on four screens. That's all the more impressive considering this is indie studio Neon's first movie.
• Your Name, the massive Japanese anime hit, also opened strongly. Playing on just 303 screens, the film took in $1.6 million, which put CHiPs to shame and made just a little bit less than Life, both of which were in only their third weekends and playing on 1,000 more screens.
• There wasn't much of a case to be made for The Case for Christ, based on Lee Strobel's best-selling book. The faith-based film made a mere $3.9 million, which couldn't even top Get Out in its 7th weekend.

Next week:

It's Easter Weekend, so you know what that means: people are going straight from church to the movie theater to get their adrenaline fix. The Fate of the Furious, whose predecessor also opened on Easter Weekend, will likely obliterate some more records. Furious 7 opened with $147.1 million, which remains the biggest April opening ever. But this has a freaking Arctic submarine chase, so I don't see how it doesn't open with at least $150 million. It's really the only big-time release until summer officially kicks off with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 on May 5, so I'm betting on half-a-billion dollars before we get there.