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Beauty and the Beast

Despite a few weeks of big releases, the live action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast tops them all with Friday earnings of $64.2 million. It’s already looking at the March opening weekend record set just last year by Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice with $166 million.

Beauty and the Beast earned $16.3 million from Thursday night shows, an impressive number and while we all knew this one was going to be a massive opening, even the hype didn’t indicate $150 million at a bare minimum on the weekend. While Beauty and the Beast doesn’t quite reach the heights of some other movies this year in the review department, what it has going for it is the always successful tactic of parents who grew up with the original animated film (who are now taking their children to see the live-action remake).

With the Thursday earnings removed, that’s a proper Friday of $47.9 million. If it goes along with the trajectory of last year’s live action remake The Jungle Book, it’s looking at a new March opening weekend record of $168.5 million.

The Belko Experiement

Corporate social experiment/gore-fest The Belko Experiment managed $1.5 million on Friday, and that’s probably not the worst it could have done considering it only got 1,341 theaters on the weekend. Add it to the “Films You Forgot Had Theatrical Releases” section on Netflix and give it $4 million or so on the weekend.

Notable Holdovers

Kong: Skull Island drops 64% from last Friday to $7.3 million, which is what was pretty much expected among big releases of March. For its second weekend, give it about $23.5 million.

Logan enjoys its last couple of days as 2017’s #1 movie as it drops 55% to $4.7 million, giving it $171.2 million to date. Beauty and the Beast will pass it by next weekend (if not midweek), but it’s still Hugh Jackman going out with a snikt, as it adds $17.1 million on the weekend.

Lastly, Get Out’s extraordinary run appears to be winding down as it’s down a still awesome 38% from last Friday to $3.7 million. It’s looking at a weekend of $12.9 million as it heads to the $150 million mark.

Projected Estimates for the Top Ten (Three-Day)
Projected Rank	Film	Estimated Gross
1	Beauty and the Beast	168.5
2	Kong: Skull Island	23.5
3	Logan	17.1
4	Get Out	12.9
5	The Shack	5.9
6	The Lego Batman Movie	5.3
7	The Belko Experiment	3.9
8	Hidden Figures	1.5
9	Before I Fall	1.0
10	John Wick: Chapter 2	1.0