The rest of Hollywood are currently eating the dust of Disney, who are churning out massive hit after massive hit. The studio is currently sitting in the pole position of domestic box-office share, and it’s a title that’s unlikely to be taken away from them by the end of 2016. All the rest of the industry can do is sit by and watch as the mouse house dominates.
In its second week, "The Jungle Book" reigned once again, hauling in a massive $60 million domestic and another $96 million overseas, bringing the current worldwide tally to $528 million. Wowsers. What else can you really say? This one is going to have very strong legs — the audience drop off was only -41% — Disney was correct to start working on the sequel, and one can only pity Warner Bros., who have Andy Serkis‘ "Jungle Book: Origins" wrapped but will be coming in behind a behemoth hit. No wonder they roped in Alfonso Cuarón to try and help out their movie. And don’t forget about "Zootopia" — Disney’s animated hit crossed $900 million worldwide. Damn.
The added star power of Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain couldn’t keep "The Huntsman: Winter’s War" from tanking hard. Audiences weren’t really asking for a sequel/prequel to "Snow White And The Huntsman," and as much as the studio tried to make them care, moviegoers answered by not showing up. The $20 million opening for the movie is far behind the $56 million bow for its predecessor, and with a budget of $115 million, this one is going to hurt for Universal. All they can hope for is that international audiences respond to it with more enthusiasm.
A surprise entry into the top 10 this week is "Compadres," an action comedy distributed by Pantelion in 368 cinemas. Gotta be honest, I had no idea this movie even existed, but credit to the distributor for clearly figuring out their audience and getting them to buy tickets.
In limited release, Tom Hanks‘ "A Hologram For The King" just fell outside the top 10 with $1.2 million across 401 screens. Reviews haven’t been great, and it’s a rare miss for the actor who seems to have a home run every time out. "The Meddler" with Rose Byrne and Susan Sarandon pulled $15,067 from four screens, Matteo Garrone‘s "Tale Of Tales" grabbed $9,000 from two screens, while Mads Mikkelsen‘s quirky "Men & Chicken" took $2,565 from two screens. Meanwhile, "Elvis & Nixon" with Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey hit 381 screens, but only pulled in $456,793, for a meager $1,199 per-screen average.
1. “The Jungle Book” — $60 million ($191.4 mil.)
2. “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” — $20 million
3. “Barbershop: The Next Cut” — $10.8 million ($36 mil.)
4. “Zootopia” — $6.6 million ($316.4 mil.)
5. “The Boss” — $6 million ($49.5 mil.)
6. “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice” — $5.5 million ($319.5 mil.)
7. “Criminal” — $3.1 million ($10.8 mil.)
8. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” — $2.1 million ($55.3 mil.)
9. “Compadres” — $1.3 million
10. “Eye In The Sky” — $1.2 million ($14.9 mil.)
Love Tom Hanks, but "a home run every time out"? Outside of Bridge of Spies and Captain Phillips, his films have been critical or commercial failures for over a decade now. He is in serious need of some consistency after, and I\’m excluding forgotten supporting parts, Saving Mr Banks, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Cloud Atlas, Larry Crowne, Angels and Demons, Charlie Wilson\’s War, and The Da Vinci Code… it\’s been over a decade since Hanks was money in the bank (though his performances are always on point, including with this one, from what I hear.)
The Huntsman figures are a little misleading. It actually had a great opening weekend, WORLDWIDE. In fact, it\’s opening weekend gross was better than SWATH\’s. Worldwide: $98,581,697 for The Huntsman, only $95,600 for SWATH. It\’s funny you always focus on the domestic box office, when increasingly, films are making the majority of their gross overseas. I don\’t suppose you will correct the record to accurately reflect that The Huntsman had a better opening weekend worldwide than SWATH did. Huntsman also had a production budget of $117 million, and it\’s almost recouped that on opening weekend. This film will go on to be profitable, so to declare the franchise dead or even wounded at this point is a joke. You can do the projections as well as I can, and you know this movie will be profitable. So the Jungle Book had a great opening? That\’s great, but in the long run, I think we\’ll see another in the Huntsman franchise.