Directed by Ben Falcone, McCarthy’s husband, who also helmed Tammy, The Boss overcame negative notices (just 18% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes) to earn an estimated $23.5 million from 3480 locations in North America. While The Boss did open a bit better than Tammy ($21.6 million), it is no Bridesmaids, and given the lousy “C+” CinemaScore that opening weekend audiences, it will be difficult for The Boss to get within sniffing distance of $100 million, though, given the film’s modest $29 million budget, it should make some money for the studio. As might be expected The Boss attracted an audience that was 67% female, and older with 49% of the crowd over 35.
The fact that Batman v. Superman didn’t finish at #1 for three weeks in a row (and the film’s rank could change when the official figures are released tomorrow), is hardly troubling, but the film’s third week 55% drop is. While it is not Watchmen (down 61% in its third frame) or Green Lantern (-63%) bad, it should be noted that those films faced much more direct competition than Batman v. Superman has. BvS has now earned $296.7 million in North America alone, and $783.5 million worldwide, which is better than Deadpool’s $755 million. But right now it doesn’t appear that Batman v. Superman has a chance to top Deadpool’s $358.4 domestic total, which remains the top number so far for films debuting in 2016.
The good news for DC and Warner Bros. “DC Extended Universe” is that a huge worldwide audience was very eager to see the movie that was going to lay the foundation for a new shared cinematic superhero universe, the bad news is that it appears now that the studio may have frittered away a lot of that built-up interest on a film that didn’t wow audiences and leaving them wanting more. So, even though BvS has passed Man of Steel, and will soon become the ninth highest-grossing comic book superhero film of all time (not adjusted for inflation of course), the front-loaded nature of that success could spell trouble for subsequent films in the DCEU, something that the powers-that-be at Warner Bros. have apparently already been thinking about (see “Suicide Squad Sent Up for Reshoots”).
As for a film that really does have “legs,” there is Disney’s Zootopia, which finished at #3 in its sixth weekend in theaters, earning $14.4 million and bringing its domestic total to $296.7 million. Zootopia earned $37 million overseas to bring its worldwide total to $852.5 million, making it the third biggest animated Disney feature yet after The Lion King and Frozen-- and Zootopia is yet to open in Japan.
Fourth place went to the modestly-budgeted My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, which added $6.4 million to bring its domestic total to $46.8 million, while the first-person (headache-inducing Go-Pro-like) action film Hardcore Henry debuted weakly in fifth place with just $5 million from over 3 thousand locations for a dismal opening week average of just $1,690 per venue. As might be expected, the audience for this cinematic equivalent of a first person shooter video game was overwhelmingly male (76%) and young with 67% in the 17-34 demographic.
Sixth place went to the religiously-themed Miracles From Heaven, while the similarly targeted God Is Not Dead 2 came in at #7. Demolition, the Jake Gyllenhaal-starring drama about a man coping with the death of his wife from director Jean-Marc Vallee (Dallas Buyer’s Club), debuted in 854 theaters and earned a modest $1.1 million with a poor $1,317 average.
Be sure to check back here next week as things really heat up with the debut of Jon Favreau’s live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book, along with the espionage thriller Criminal, and two comedies, Barbershop: The Next Cut, and Richard (Dazed and Confused) Linklater’s 1980’s collegiate saga Everybody Wants Some.