The Boss Baby once again led the box office in its second weekend in theaters. With Beauty and the Beast's reign gradually slowing down after a massive first four weeks, DreamWorks/20th Century Fox's surprise hit The Boss Baby dethroned the Disney blockbuster in its opening weekend, promising a strong return on its $125 million budget.
In its second weekend, The Boss Baby faced more direct competition from another animated feature, Sony's Smurfs: The Lost Village. However, this weekend's box office results are out and it looks like Smurfs proved to be less of a real competition than what might have been expected; The Lost Village has not reinvigorated the franchise like Sony had hoped. As a result, The Boss Baby easily defeated its animated counterpart on the way to beating Beauty and the Beast for the second straight weekend.
As reported by Variety, The Boss Baby topped the box office for the second straight weekend with $26.3 million, edging out Beauty and the Beast's $25 million. The Boss Baby now sits at $89.4 million in the U.S., while Beauty and the Beast added to its hefty domestic total of $432.3 million. Smurfs: The Lost Village, meanwhile, opened in third place with a disappointing $14.1 million. New Line's Going in Style ($12.5 million) and Paramount's Ghost in the Shell ($7.3 million) rounded out the top five; the latter could lose up to $60 million over the course of its run.
Analysts told Variety that the abundance of family films in theaters hurt Smurfs: The Lost Village in its opening weekend. Sony reps, however, cited the sequel's relatively low $60 million budget and good word-of-mouth as reasons that the studio remains confident that The Lost Village can still turn a profit. Still, The Boss Baby and Beauty and the Beast lead the way in a successful 2017 so far; Variety estimates that overall ticket sales are up 15 percent and revenues are up 5 percent compared to 2016.
Despite Sony's confidence that Smurfs: The Lost Village can still be a success, an analyst theorized to Variety that the sequel's disappointing opening could doom the franchise's chances of future sequels. The Boss Baby, on the other hand, is on its way to the kind of profits that would virtually guarantee that DreamWorks will green-light a sequel. Thanks to the surprise success of The Boss Baby and the continued commercial triumphs of Beauty and the Beast, among other hits, March's huge box office results should continue well into April.
DreamWorks and Fox should enjoy this win for The Boss Baby while it lasts, because it's very likely going to be its last time at the top. Universal's The Fate of the Furious looms with its April 14 release date on the horizon and is expected to gross upwards of $100 million in its opening weekend. But even a drop from the top spot at the box office can't take away from the big success that The Boss Baby has enjoyed in its first two weeks.
Source: Variety
