Weekend Wrap-Up: Beast Smashes Record with a Beautiful $174.75 million Opening

March 21, 2017

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast was expected to break records during its opening weekend, but its final tally of $174.75 million is still impressive, even compared to the expectations. The rest of the box office wasn’t hurt as badly as one would predict given the explosive hit at the top and that helped the overall box office grow by 59% to $261 million. This is almost double what it was this weekend last year. More importantly, this was enough to put 2017 in the lead in the year-over-year comparison. At the end of the weekend, 2017 had earned $2.39 billion, compared to $2.30 billion for 2016. Granted, this is partially due to a misalignment of monster hits, as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opened the following weekend last year. That said, I really don’t think 2017 will fall behind given its current $95 million lead.

Beauty and the Beast had the best opening of the year, biggest March opening, biggest PG opening, not to mention plenty of smaller records on its way to its $174.75 million opening weekend. It also became the biggest hit of 2017 by Monday. Almost everything about this film is positive. Almost everything. The film’s reviews are only 70%, which is a lot lower than I was expecting at the beginning of the month. It did get an A from CinemaScore, so its legs will still be long and $500 million domestically seems like a sure bet at this point. Of course, we will have a better idea where it will end up by this time next week.

Kong: Skull Island was within a rounding error of expectations, but was on the high end earning $27.83 million over the weekend for a total of $109.11 million after ten days of release. The film cost $185 million to make and it will come close to that domestically. If it can get to $400 million worldwide, it will break even, probably around the time the next installment of the MonsterVerse hits theaters.

Logan earned $17.82 million over the weekend for a total of $184.34 million after three weeks of release. It remains on pace to hit $200 million over this coming weekend, while it remains the biggest worldwide hit of 2017, at least for now.

Get Out added $13.44 million over the weekend for a total of $133.31 million after four weeks of release. It could hit $150 million as early as the weekend and it will likely end the year as one of 2017’s most profitable films.

The Shack rounded out the top five with $6.01 million over the weekend for a total of $42.49 million after three weeks of release. It is rare for faith-based films to do this well.

The Belko Experiment didn’t bomb, which puts it ahead of a lot of people’s expectations. It wasn’t a huge hit, earning 7th place with $4.14 million, but many thought it would open below the Mendoza Line. Its reviews are mixed, but since it only cost $5 million to make, it could still break even, especially as it still has a chance to become a bit of a cult hit on the home market.

- Weekend Box Office Chart

- Beauty and the Beast Comparisons
- The Belko Experiment Comparisons

Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Logan, Kong: Skull Island, Beauty and the Beast, The Shack, Get Out, The Belko Experiment, MonsterVerse