Friday Estimates: Jungle Roars to the Top

April 16, 2016

The Jungle Book

Friday's box office had some good news, some bad news, and some ugly news. The Jungle Book opened with an amazing $32.41 million on Friday. Given its family-friendly target demographic and its 95% positive reviews, it should have a great internal multiplier. For example, Cinderella opened with $23.00 million during its opening day on the way to an opening weekend of $67.88 million. If The Jungle Book has the same internal multiplier, it will earn $96 million over the weekend. However, films that open bigger have a harder time maintaining those numbers. An opening weekend of $90 million is possible, but I think it will fall just short of that mark.

Barbershop: The Next Cut did okay with $7.04 million. This is bad news, because it is below expectations, but given its reviews there is still a chance it can grab $20 million over the weekend. It will likely miss that mark by a little bit, but since the film reportedly cost just $20 million to make, a $19 million opening weekend is still great.

Criminal had an ugly opening with just $2.06 million on Friday. Add in reviews that are just 25% positive and it might have a really small internal multiplier. Its target audience is older men, not younger men, so that should prevent it from missing the Mendoza Line, but barely, with an opening weekend of just under $6 million.

One last note, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice lost nearly 600 theaters on Friday and that really hurt its box office numbers. It pulled in $2.36 million for the day, which is 61% lower than last Friday. Equally troublesome, it was just half as much as Deadpool earned during the same point in its run. At this pace, the two films might be tied by the end of the weekend.

- Friday box office

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

Filed under: Friday Estimates, Deadpool, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Jungle Book, Criminal, Barbershop: The Next Cut