Disney once again ruled the box office this week with yet another record-breaking weekend.
Easily winning the top spot is Beauty and the Beast (read our review), the live-action remake of the animated classic widely regarded as one of Disney’s best efforts. The film brought in a whopping $170 million in its first three days, setting a new all-time March mark. That figure slightly edges Batman V Superman‘s $166 million haul from a year ago. Beauty and the Beast also became the seventh-highest debut ever domestically, narrowly beating Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, which grossed $169.1 million back in 2011. After a dominant 2016, Disney’s 2017 is off to a rousing start.
Beauty and the Beast is also well on its way to turning a hefty profit for the studio. With the production budget coming in at $160 million, the film is already in the black thanks to its $350 million worldwide opening. Depending on how things shake out over the next few weeks, it could become the latest member of the $1 billion club. The rest of the month does see the premieres of highly-anticipated genre pictures like Power Rangers and Ghost in the Shell, but it’s hard to bet against Disney these days. Even if March’s other films make it big, Beauty and the Beast should hold well over the course of the next month.
As expected, Kong: Skull Island fell to second with $28.8 million in its second weekend. While the gap between it and Beauty is considerable, Kong still had a solid hold, dropping 52.7 percent as audiences checked out the blossoming MonsterVerse. The film is now up to $110.1 million domestically.
Coming in third is Logan with $17.5 million. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine swan song continues to perform well commercially and has now grossed $184 million in the States.
The #4 film is Get Out. The horror/thriller made $13.2 million to raise its domestic total to $133.1 million.
Rounding out the top five is The Shack with $6.1 million. The religious drama is now up to $42.6 million Stateside.
In sixth is The LEGO Batman Movie. The latest from WB’s animation department made $4.7 million in its sixth weekend to increase its domestic total to $167.4 million.
New horror movie The Belko Experiment (read our review) opened in seventh with $4 million. Despite the involvement of writer James Gunn, the film was never expected to be much of a box office draw. Though the concept is interesting, the movie lacked the necessary A-list star power to really stand out, and the mixed reviews didn’t do it any favors. Awareness and appeal were limited, which ended up hurting Belko.
Hidden Figures comes in eighth with $1.5 million. The Best Picture nominee raised its domestic total to $165.5 million.
In ninth is John Wick: Chapter 2. The action sequel grossed $1.2 million over the weekend to increase its Stateside haul to $89.7 million.
Capping off the top 10 is Before I Fall, which made $1 million and raised its U.S. total to $11.2 million.
[NOTE: These are only weekend box office estimates — based on Friday and Saturday ticket sales coupled with adjusted expectations for Sunday. Official weekend box office results will be released on Monday, March 20 — at which time we’ll update this post with any changes.]
