There's no stopping Disney when they're on an honest-to-goodness tear. That's the lesson to be learned from this weekend at the box office, where Beauty and the Beast once again reigned supreme. The subject matter has something to do with the success of the film: it's a fantastical romantic-comedy, whereas the far superior yet way less financially successful Pete's Dragon is, at heart, a fantasy film about maturity, adulthood, nature, and instinct. Still, with the film taking the top spot this weekend with some $88 million following its massive opener, Beauty and the Beast is nothing short of a juggernaut, and we haven't even started getting into its international money and home video prospects.

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Image via Lionsgate

This means that this weekend's big opener, Power Rangers, had to take the second-place spot, but there's no shame in Dean Israelite's game here. Power Rangers beat out predictions that had it coming in at $30-35 million with a $40.5 million take overall; if it keeps up a decent percentage of that business next weekend, a sequel is essentially certain. It's also genuinely entertaining to watch, despite some truly idiotic plot turns and dialogue, and the stunning amount of Krispy Kreme product placement. Man of Steel had nearly identical issues and made me wander off in my mind to contemplate how towels are made for much of its egregious runtime; Power Rangers kept me interested from beginning to end.

And as compared to the other openers for the weekend, Power Rangers could be seen as a real blockbuster. Coming in at fourth, Daniel Espinosa's Life made some money off of sci-fi die-hards and the most rabid fans of Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, but struggled to secure a larger audience with $12.6 million, while Logan continued its winning streak at fifth place with another $10.1 million, easily pushing it past $200 million in total domestically. Finally, there was the amiable Kong: Skull Island, which is continuing to do strong business with a $14.4 million haul for the weekend, putting it right behind Power Rangers.

ghost-in-the-shell-scarlett-johansson
Image via Paramount Pictures

Even if Ghost in the Shell underperforms next weekend, I would expect this to be the last weekend for Logan and Life in the top five; the added pressure of animated opener The Boss Baby next weekend is also something to keep an eye on. Right now, it looks like next weekend will put Beauty and the Beast to the test in it's third frame against the star-power oomph of Scarlett Johansson. The question is: will people show up for a white-washed remake of a cult anime just because of Johansson? As always, we shall see.

Here's the top five for the weekend box office:

Title

Weekend Box Office

Total Domestic Box Office

01. ‘Beauty and the Beast’

$88,347,000

$316,952,887

02. ‘Power Rangers’

$40,500,000

$40,500,000

03. ‘Kong: Skull Island’

$14,425,000

$133,502,238

04. ‘Life’

$12,600,000

$12,600,000

05. ‘Logan’

$10,145,000

$201,455,596

life-movie-jake-gyllenhaal
Image via Sony
logan-hugh-jackman-dafne-keen
Image via 20th Century Fox
kong-skull-island-john-goodman
Image via Warner Bros.