There is no doubt that Beauty and the Beast will continue to dominate the box office but there are three new films opening looking to make an impression and it looks like it will be one crowded weekend at the box office.
The live action Disney musical has already grossed $206.2M after $17.9 million being grossed on Tuesday which has it charting the best pre-summer Tuesday of all-time. This was with 11% K-12 and 15% colleges off for the spring break holiday. The strong weekday grosses indicate that word of mouth is very strong for the film and it’s well on its way to clearing $300 million domestically as it approaches the weekend. I’m predicting about $80 million in weekend two but wouldn’t be surprised if it charged a bit higher.
That leaves us with Power Rangers likely to take second but the question remains how well the film will actually do. Promotions has been relatively good and nostalgia should fuel some solid grosses but some have questioned how many people actually wanted to see the Rangers get a big screen reboot? There was actually a Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers feature film in 1995 but the movie was made with the same production quality as its TV counterpart off an estimated $15M budget and in the end didn’t resonate with the masses or the fans because it didn’t offer anything beyond what they could see at home. Domestic final gross was a lukewarm $38.1 million domestically which is a gross the new film will likely eclipsed on opening weekend. Reviews are pretty much down the middle with a 49% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes but this films like a review proof film and those that want to see it, likely will. It’s tracking in the $30-40 million range but I see it grossing at least $45 million opening weekend which is a solid start for a film carrying a $100 million budget.
The next new release is the sci-fi drama, Life and should put up decent numbers thanks mostly to its better than expected reviews (79% on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing). The movie marks the second studio release from director Daniel Espinosa who hit box office gold with the Denzel Washington-Ryan Reynolds spy movie Safe House ($126.3 million domestic, $208 millionworldwide). That movie cost $85 million, and this one set in space cost a reported $58 million which sets it up for some strong business if overseas grosses make an impression. I’m seeing a $15-20 million opening and the rest will be determined by word of mouth.
That leaves us with CHIPS to pick up the box office scraps and I’m still trying to figure out if anyone really wanted this and, for those who wanted it, how many of them will come out for it. There aren’t any comedies out right now which should help the film a bit and it’s R-rated which has its raunchy charms as well. The target audience definitely won’t know the show this movie is based on so they’re really only being enticed by the ads which have been OK in regards to sell them on the sleaze. I’ll be nice and predict $10-12 million for the weekend and perhaps some cult status once it hits home media.
Check back here Monday to see the box office final results!
