Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
April 8, 2017
BoxOfficeProphets.com
It’s a tight race at the top on Friday but it’s two holdovers battling instead of new releases. The Boss Baby squeaks out a small lead with $6.9 million (down 56% from last Friday). The drop is a little bit alarming, but it’s going to follow the typical animated/family film weekend pattern and have a good Saturday and Sunday, though it’s still going to be neck and neck between this and Beauty and the Beast. The Boss Baby has the inside track, though, and should win the weekend with $25.5 million.
Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast adds another $6.8 million on Friday after crossing $400 million midweek. The addition of a singalong version of the film didn’t move the needle too much as the decline is right in line with the last couple weeks. The race between Beauty and the Beast and The Boss Baby (that’s way too many B’s), will continue to be close, but Boss Baby should win, barely. Beauty and the Beast comes in with $23.9 million.
Going In Style
The first of the new releases on the weekend is old guy comedy Going In Style, which earned $4.2 million on Friday, somewhat ahead of expectations. Critically wrecked, there was a clear ceiling for this sort of thing and it basically landed there, so it’s in line for an okay but not super great weekend of $12 million.
Smurfs: The Lost Village
The Smurfs reboot (no live action in this one) enters theaters at likely one of the worst possible times when the first choice for kids is clearly The Boss Baby. Indeed, The Smurfs: The Lost Village opens to $4 million on Friday. The weekend will boost it up a bit, but somebody probably got fired for this release date. (For comparison, the July 2013 sequel Smurfs 2 had a first day of $5.2 million, and that was a Wednesday.) The Lost Village will leap over Going In Style thanks to Saturday and Sunday, but it’s entering at a time when families have too many choices. Give it a weekend of $13.6 million.
The Case for Christ
Faith-based entry The Case for Christ sneaks into a soft bottom half of the top ten with $1.5 million on Friday in just 1,174 theaters. Based on a non-fiction book about an atheist investigating Christianity before converting to the religion (spoilers, sorry), Pure Flix Entertainment (the company behind the God’s Not Dead films) continues to release low budget faith-based films that end up in the black. The Case for Christ should end up with about $4.4 million for the weekend.
Notable Holdovers
Despite Beauty and the Beast continuing to do well, it’s a bad week for '90s nostalgia as last week’s opener Ghost in the Shell plunges 72% from last Friday to just $2.1 million, validating the manga fans who vowed to not see the live action adaptation due to the casting of Scarlett Johansson. It’s looking at less than $7 million for the weekend.
Meanwhile, Power Rangers drops another 58% in its third weekend to just $1.7 million. After a solid opening, it rapidly became a box office non-factor. Though to be fair to Lionsgate, $70 million is way more than the fourth Divergent film would have earned.