The Jungle Book was filmed on green screens in Los Angeles with the young Mowgli played by child actor Neel Sethi interacting with computer created animals who are voiced by a galaxy of stars including Lupita Nyong’o, Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Murray, Christopher Walken, and the recently deceased Gary Shandling. Warner Bros. is planning a similar “motion-capture” adaptation featuring Andy Serkis, but that film has now (wisely) been postponed from 2017 to 2018.
Meanwhile, in spite of increasing competition as the spring movie season continues, Favreau’s Jungle Book looks like it is set for a nice long run thanks to strong notices (95% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes) and a good reaction from opening weekend audiences, who gave the film an “A” CinemaScore (with those under 18 giving the film an “A+”). Opening weekend crowds were almost evenly split between the genders (51% female), with families making up 49% of the audience, of which 12% was under 12, with 10% in the 13-16 bracket, 16% 17-25, 23% 26-34, 19% 35-49, and 11% over 50. While its “legs” might not match those of Disney’s giraffe-like Zootopia, The Jungle Book has an excellent shot at earning over $300 million in the domestic market.
The Jungle Book is also doing well overseas where it earned $136.1 million this weekend (including a $50.3 opening in China), and has already earned $187.4 million outside of North America (it opened in several territories last weekend) for a global total of $291 million. Here in North America The Jungle Book wangled 43% of its total from 3D showings, a fairly high percentage here in U.S., which also bodes well for the film’s international prospects, since films that make effective use of 3D typically do even better in the extra-dimensional format outside the U.S.
Second place went to the comedy sequel Barbershop: The Next Cut, the third film in the series that takes place in an African-American tonsorial parlor. The Next Cut earned an estimated $20.2 million. Opening weekend audiences, which were 54% female and 66% over 25, gave The Next Cut a solid “A-“ CinemaScore, so there is hope that this film will continue to find its audience. Tim Story’s original Barbershop film in 2002 also opened with $20.2 million, but given the ticket price inflation over the past 14 years that would translate to over $30 million today, which means that there is still a substantial audience out there that showed up for the original Barbershop and 2004’s Barbershop 2, which opened with $24 million.
Melissa McCarthy’s R-rated comedy The Boss suffered a 56.9% loss (a great number for an action film, but not so for a comedy), but still earned $10.2 million to bring its domestic total to $40.4 million. It is still hard to figure where The Boss will end up, though it should be well shy of $100 million. But given the film’s modest $29 million production cost, it should be modestly profitable.
|
Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): April 15-17, 2016 |
||||||
|
Film |
Weekend Gross |
Screens |
Avg./Screen |
Total Gross |
Wk# |
|
|
1 |
The Jungle Book |
$103,567,000 |
4,028 |
$25,712 |
$103,567,000 |
1 |
|
2 |
Barbershop: The Next Cut |
$20,210,000 |
2,661 |
$7,595 |
$20,210,000 |
1 |
|
3 |
The Boss |
$10,170,000 |
3,495 |
$2,910 |
$40,351,910 |
2 |
|
4 |
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice |
$9,010,000 |
3,505 |
$2,571 |
$311,311,730 |
4 |
|
5 |
Zootopia |
$8,235,000 |
3,209 |
$2,566 |
$307,478,756 |
7 |
|
6 |
Criminal |
$5,850,000 |
2,683 |
$2,180 |
$5,850,000 |
1 |
|
7 |
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 |
$3,260,000 |
2,297 |
$1,419 |
$52,095,490 |
4 |
|
8 |
Miracles from Heaven |
$1,900,000 |
2,082 |
$913 |
$56,930,812 |
5 |
|
9 |
God's Not Dead 2 |
$1,712,236 |
1,585 |
$1,080 |
$16,956,407 |
3 |
|
10 |
Eye in the Sky |
$1,561,998 |
891 |
$1,753 |
$13,121,983 |
6 |
Zack Snyder’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, the first film in the new DC Extended Cinematic Universe, continued to falter in the wake of its spectacular debut as it dropped 61.4% in its fourth frame, earning $9 million to bring its domestic total to $311.3 million. It is now clear that BvS will not top Deadpool’s $360 million domestic total, and, though it has now earned $827.3 million worldwide, it will not top the one billion dollar mark. With an acknowledged production cost of $250 million, to say nothing of distribution and promotional costs, it appears that, while BvS will be profitable for Warner Bros., it will not produce a huge fount of cash for the studio, and the film’s lack of staying power must be troubling for the studio brass.
In spite of direct competition from The Jungle Book, Disney’s leggy Zootopia dropped just 42.6% in its seventh weekend as it earned $8.2 million to bring its domestic total to $307. 5 million. Don’t be surprised if Zootopia eventually passes BvS on the domestic charts, and with a global total of $882.3 million (and with the lucrative Japanese market still to come) there is no doubt that Zootopia will out earn BvS on a worldwide basis.
This week’s lone potential “bomb” is violent old-school action film Criminal, which stars Kevin Costner as a death row inmate who has the memories of a dead CIA agent implanted in his brain so that he might stop terrorist plot. In spite of a strong cast (Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds), The Criminal debuted mildly in sixth place with an estimated $5.8 million, and would appear to have few prospects to improve on its lackluster opening.
If you are looking for “certified bombs,” there is the headache-inducing Go-Pro first-person shooter action film Hardcore Henry, which debuted weakly in fifth place last weekend, and then proceeded to plummet 71% and fall out of the top ten with a per-theater average of just $492, as well as the Jake Gyllenhaal drama Demolition, which fell 72% in its second frame as it earned just $356 per venue.
Next week it will be a battle of the fantasy classics as The Huntsman: Winter’s War, the second film in the live-action Snow White spin-off squares off against the Mowgli and company.
