Weekend Wrap-Up: Jungle is King of the Box Office pulling in $103.26 million

April 18, 2016

The Jungle Book

Wow. As expected, The Jungle Book easily won first place on the box office chart, but did so with a much, much better than anticipated result of $103.26 million during its opening weekend. This is more than the rest of the box office earned. Barbershop: The Next Cut did well as counter-programming earning $20.24 million. On the other hand, Criminal missed the top five and barely managed to avoid the Mendoza Line. The overall box office was $176 million, which was 68% more than last weekend and 47% more than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2016 has earned $3.19 billion at the box office, which is 9.2% / $270 million more than last year's pace. I didn't think 2016 had a chance to top 2015, but I'm really getting optimistic now.

The Jungle Book had the second biggest April weekend earning $103.26 million during its opening. That's about 50% more than the average prediction for the movie. Additionally, the film's Tomatometer Score and its family friendly target audience should lead to long legs. It should have no trouble getting to $300 million, while it might even top Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on the yearly chart.

Barbershop: The Next Cut was well back in second place with $20.24 million. This is the weakest opening in the Barbershop franchise, even before you take into account inflation. That said, it is still a great opening for a counter-programming release. Add in the film's reviews and it should have good legs and will likely break even early in its home market run.

The Boss fell a lot faster than was expected down 58% to just $9.96 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $40.14 million. This is more than it cost to make, so the studio should be fine with this result. On the other hand, the next Melissa McCarthy / Ben Falcone film needs better reviews.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice also fell faster than expected with a 61% decline down to $9.03 million over the weekend for a total of $311.33 million after four weeks of release. By comparison, Deadpool had earned $311.48 million after four weeks. BvS earned 72% more during its opening day, but 23 days later and Deadpool completely erased that deficit. It did top Zootopia's running tally over the weekend, so that's something. ... But it might not last.

Zootopia rounded out the top five with $8.14 million over the weekend for a total of $307.39 million after a month and a half of release. It did fall below Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on the yearly chart, but that might not last. I foresee BvS losing a lot more theaters this weekend than Zootopia will and Zootopia should climb above BvS on the weekend chart as a result.

Criminal missed the top five with just $5.77 million. Its reviews are just 26% positive and its theater average was just $2,150. Both of these suggest very short legs.

Hardcore Henry was the only sophomore stint film not it the top five. It plummeted 72% to just $1.45 million over the weekend to a mere $8.12 million after ten days of release. It will see its theater count decimated on Friday.

- Weekend box office

- The Jungle Book comparisons
- Barbershop: The Next Cut comparisons
- Criminal comparisons
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice comparisons

Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Deadpool, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Jungle Book, Zootopia, Criminal, The Boss, Barbershop: The Next Cut, Hardcore Henry, Barbershop, Ben Falcone, Melissa McCarthy