Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
April 23, 2016
The Huntsman: Winter's War
The prequel to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman, which approximately nobody was asking for, opens with a disappointing $7.2 million on Friday. That’s disappointing because Snow White and the Huntsman earned $20.4 million on Friday, a figure this film will not earn over the entire weekend. Here we have the best example of a film’s existence being justified almost entirely by international earnings, since the previous film earned $245 million overseas (on top of $155 million domestically). Whatever it earns here is gravy since it’s expected to earn much more than that everywhere else. As we’ve hinted at over the years, don’t be surprised when a bunch of questionable sequels/prequels pop up in the next several years. This weekend, however, look for The Huntsman to land in second place on the weekend with a middling $19.7 million.
The Jungle Book
After defying even the highest expectations last weekend, The Jungle Book holds well with $16.5 million on Friday, down 48% from its opening day. A strong Saturday is what powered it to a $103 million opening last weekend and that trend will continue, as it will land a $57.7 million second weekend as it cruises towards the $200 million mark, a figure it will pass mid-week.
Compadres
With a very weak bottom half of the chart and a couple of weeks with only one or two major releases, a couple of limited openers sneak into Friday's chart. Compadres is in just 368 theaters and earned $450,000 for ninth place on Friday. It's a Mexican action-comedy (earning a little over $4 million in about a month) and so it's obviously a targeted release for American audiences that probably isn't going to expand much further. It's looking at a weekend of $1.3 million.
A Hologram for the King
Tom Hanks stars in the adaptation of a Dave Eggers novel about an American businessman who travels to Saudi Arabia in an attempt to make a sale. Between this and The Circle, I'm still waiting for the film adaptation of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Anyway, A Hologram for the King earned $400,000 on Friday in just 401 theaters. That was still good enough for it to place 10th on the day. I'm not sure it bodes well for further expansion of any was planned, but it will still earn about $1.2 million on the weekend
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Projected Estimates for the Top Ten (Three-Day)
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Projected
Rank |
Film |
Estimated Gross |
|
1
|
The Jungle Book
|
57.7
|
|
2
|
The Huntsman: Winter's War
|
19.7
|
|
3
|
Barbershop: The Next Cut
|
9.7
|
|
4
|
Zootopia
|
6.2
|
|
5
|
The Boss
|
6.0
|
|
6
|
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
|
5.5
|
|
7
|
Criminal
|
2.6
|
|
8
|
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
|
2.1
|
|
9
|
Compadres
|
1.3
|
|
10
|
A Hologram for the King
|
1.2
|
|
|
|
|
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