Friday Box Office Estimates

In the dead weekend before the “official” start of summer, there are no challenges to the king of the April jungle. Three new movies, but only one from a major and all three chasing alternative audiences. Keanu chases the Key & Peele audience with a kitty cat… one scaring away guys and the other scaring away kids who love kitties. Mother’s Day is warmed over Garry Marshall hash… Four big heads on the poster is all they could do. And Ratchet & Clank is a cartoon from a popular video game… which we are still waiting to work as a movie for the first time.

The Weekend Report

The Jungle Book continued to hold sway at the box office with a top branch estimate of $61.4 million. The session’s sole wide national release The Huntsman: Winter’s War was a distant second with $20.1 million. There were also a trio of limited wide openers that included the Mexican slacker comedy Compadres at $1.4 million; the offbeat drama A Hologram for the King grossing $1.1 million and the historic Elvis & Nixon trailing with $473,000.

There was also a flurry of quickly engineered playdates for Purple Rain to honor Prince’s untimely death. A Warner Bros. spokesman said it numbered roughly 150 engagements (many single projections) with box office reporting expected Monday or Tuesday.

Friday Box Office Estimates

The Huntsman: Winter’s War, a movie for which the title character wasn’t sold and the studio tried to bend the film’s premise into a 30something, CGfied version of Frozen, opened to a little better than 1/3 of its predecessor. Universal has another month before what should be their first breakout hit of 2016, Neighbors 2. The only indie with a shot at $10k per screen is The Meddler, the Susan Sarandon comedy, on just four screens this weekend.

The Weekend Report

The Jungle Book swung wide and was the frame’s big winner with a potent debut estimated at $103.3 million. Two films made national bows as counter-programmers with Barbershop: The Next Cut sweeping a tidy $20.2 million in second spot and Criminal opening to a grim $5.8 million. Best of the exclusives freshmen were the Irish musical Sing Street with $65,800 from five screens and an unexpectedly strong $85,900 for the thriller Green Room in three engagements.

Friday Box Office Estimates

A solid opening for The Jungle Book. There is likely $30 million or more in what was the opening weekend pot waiting on word-of-mouth from non-critics to determine whether the under-8 set should see or avoid the movie, which is an action sell. This opening isn’t a game changer, especially given the cost of the film. But it is plenty good enough, especially with a good international start as well. Universal will be aiming to beat whatever this 3-day ends up being with its second Huntsman film to focus on the women, not the Huntsman. Barbershop: The Next Cut opening day-ed right between the original and the sequel. BvS drops 60% again.

The Weekend Report

The dust won’t settle until tomorrow but today’s estimates give the slightest of edges for bragging rights to the Melissa McCarthy comedy The Boss. Its weekend debut is $23.5 million while Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is sitting at $23.4 million. The only other wide opener, Hardcore Henry, ran down a disappointing $5 million.

Best of the exclusive bows was the U.S. indie thriller The Invitation that won best film at the prestigious Sitges festival last year. It grossed $53,400 from six sit-downs. Expansions this weekend included good response for slow rollouts of Everybody Wants Some!! and Miles Ahead and limp results for the ramped-up break of Midnight Special.

Friday Box Office Estimates

The solid opening of The Boss seems less like news than a 2nd-3rd Friday drop for Batman v Superman of 60%… which is ugly. Hardcore Henry, which STX tried very hard to launch, didn’t get far off the pad, hoping to get just over $5m for the weekend. A lot of indie firepower this weekend has led nowhere much. Quality, high indie profile films Demolition, The Invitation, and Louder Than Bombs will all miss the $10k per screen standard for a big indie launch (though to be fair, the Jake Gyllenhaal starrer will come in close to $1m for the weekend).

The DVD Wrapup: Stealing Cars, Dixieland, Great Hypnotist, The Forest, Dreams Rewired, Giallo, Zydeco, Alice’s Restaurant and more

If this affecting teen drama had been made in the 1930s, it might have starred Mickey Rooney as the most unrepentant juvenile delinquent in a reform school full of hard cases. Or, it could have provided the perfect ensemble vehicle for the Dead End Kids, with Leo Gorcey standing up to the brutal screws and finding redemption in the nifty car he’s assigned to wax for the warden. In Stealing Cars, Emory Cohen (The Place Beyond the Pines) plays the self-destructive Billy Wyatt, a too-smart-for-his-own-good wiseass whose criminal behavior lands him in the Bernville Camp for Boys. Seemingly without any concern for his own safety, Billy shoves his education in

The Weekend Report

It was the proverbial case of “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” as Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice took a hard hit but nonetheless emerged as the top choice in the marketplace with an estimated $52.3 million. The only new national release was faith-targeted God’s Not Dead 2 that kneeled at fourth with a disappointing $7.7 million.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Batman v Superman v word-of-mouth: BvS falls from yet another high place with a record 72% drop.