Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” continued to charge towards the $1 billion mark in its second box office weekend, easily holding on to the No. 1 spot with an estimated $88 million to reach a global cume of $690 million after just ten days in theaters.
This makes “Beauty” the fourth straight Disney film to cross the $600 million global mark, following “Doctor Strange,” “Moana” and “Rogue One.” It also now ranks in the top 5 for ten-day box office totals and second weekend totals.
“Beauty” staved off a cluster of new releases this weekend, including Lionsgate’s “Power Rangers,” which finished in a distant second but beat trackers’ expectation of $35 million to gross a solid $40.5 million domestically from 3,693 screens against a $105 million budget.
The blockbuster retelling of the battle between Rita Repulsa and Zordon’s “teenagers with attitude” got a mixed 44 percent by critics at Rotten Tomatoes, but received an A from CinemaScore surveys, with an A+ grade from 30 percent of moviegoers under 18. The film also received a boost from college-age moviegoers during the spring break season, as millennials who saw the Saturday morning TV series when it first premiered back in 1993 came to theaters for a dose of nostalgia.
Finishing third is Warner Bros.’s “Kong: Skull Island,” which made an estimated $14.4 million in its third weekend to bring its domestic cume to $133.5 million. Overseas, “Kong” enjoyed a strong opening in China this weekend, making an estimated $51.3 million on Friday and Saturday with $6.5 million coming from 387 IMAX screens. While the final weekend totals are still being estimated, China is likely to push “Kong” to $350 million global this weekend and $400 million in the days to come, which will surely please Lionsgate, as they build towards “Godzilla vs. King Kong”
In a disappointing fourth is Columbia Pictures’ “Life,” which only made an estimated $12.2 million from 3,146 against a $58 million budget, putting its opening on the low end of trackers’ projections. While the Jake Gyllenhaal/Ryan Reynolds space horror film received a 67 percent RT rating and solid word-of-mouth after its premiere at SXSW, “Life” has been a dud with audiences, receiving a C+ CinemaScore.
Fox’s “Logan,” meanwhile, will be happy with its fifth place finish in its fourth weekend, as its estimated $10 million this weekend will push it past the $200 million domestic mark after it passed $500 million global earlier this week. Universal’s “Get Out” will also celebrate a milestone of its own, as it will pass the $150 million global mark after making $8.7 million in its fifth weekend.
Finishing outside the top ten this week is “CHIPS,” Dax Shepard’s comedy with Michael Pena about a pair of bumbling California Highway Patrol officers. The film took in $7.6 million from 2,494 screens. By comparison, WB’s last adult comedy, “Fist Fight,” made $12.2 million in its opening weekend last month, albeit against much less competition than “CHIPS” is facing.