Disney’s new trend of remaking animated classics in (semi) live-action form appears to be paying off in spades. Fresh off stellar reviews, director Jon Favreau’s jaw-dropping The Jungle Book kicked off the weekend with a spectacular Friday box office, drawing $32.4 million which puts it on track for a three-day total in the range of $87 million to $90 million. Those are spectacular numbers for a movie with no big stars, but Favreau’s empathetic and thrilling take on this classic story came together spectacularly, and audiences are responding in kind with an A CinemaScore. Disney is so happy with the results that they’ve already entered talks with Favreau and screenwriter Justin Marks to return for The Jungle Book 2, and the visual effects and cinematography (via the incomparable Bill Pope) truly resulted in visuals the likes of which we’ve never seen before. The Jungle Book is a home run all around, on track to perform better than the studio’s other adaptation successes Cinderella and Maleficent, and Disney is no doubt thrilled with these results.
Elsewhere, the comedy sequel Barbershop: The Next Cut is performing really well, earning $7 million on Friday for a weekend total around $19 million. The weekend’s other new release, the crime thriller Criminal, on the other hand only managed to drudge up a paltry $2 million and should finish the weekend with a meager $5 million to $7 million.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, meanwhile, snagged $2.3 million on Friday to bring its domestic total to $304.6 million, which is enough to surpass the domestic total of Man of Steel but still fairly lacking when compared to the performance of similar blockbusters, especially only three weeks out from release. Indeed, it was beaten on Friday by the Melissa McCarthy comedy The Boss, which unseated BvS in its third weekend from the top spot and earned $3 million yesterday.
Rounding out the Top 5 for Friday is Disney’s animated juggernaut Zootopia, which added $2.1 million to its box office and brings its worldwide total to a staggering $866.6 million thus far. Throw in the stellar performance of The Jungle Book both domestically and abroad and the impending release of Captain America: Civil War, and Disney is sitting pretty at the start of the 2016 blockbuster movie season.
Look for a more extensive box office rundown on Sunday when full weekend estimates are in. For now, take a look at Friday’s Top 5 below.
|
Rank |
Title |
Friday Box Office |
Total Box Office |
|
1. |
The Jungle Book |
$32,411,000 |
$32,411,000 |
|
2. |
Barbershop: The Next Cut |
$7,040,000 |
$7,040,000 |
|
3. |
The Boss |
$3,090,000 |
$33,271,910 |
|
4. |
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice |
$2,360,000 |
$304,661,730 |
|
5. |
Zootopia |
$2,140,000 |
$301,383,756 |
