ComScore is reporting this morning that the March box office is hitting an all-time record of $1 billion thanks to momentum of such tentpoles as Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, 20th Century Fox’s Logan, Legendary/Warner Bros.’ Kong: Skull Island and Lionsgate’s Saban’s Power Rangers.
This month easily blows away last year’s $948.8M which was built on the success of Disney’s Zootopia ($255.9M for the month) and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice ($209.1M).
Previous $1 billion months of late include August 2016 when Suicide Squad propelled as well as August 2014 with Guardians of the Galaxy. In addition, Disney’s Rogue One: A crossed it as did August 2014 when Guardians 1 came out. In addition, the last two Decembers have respectively hit $1 billion thanks to Star Wars: Force Awakens and Rogue One.
This morning Disney is reporting $88.3M for the second weekend of Beauty and the Beast, the fourth best second weekend of all-time, with a 10-day cume of $317M. However, the industry is seeing the Bill Condon musical higher with a $90.4M second weekend take.
Lionsgate is reporting $40.5M for Power Rangers in second. Kong: Skull Island is filing $14.4M in its third weekend, -48% for a running cume of $133.5M. Meanwhile Sony’s sci-fi R-rated thriller Life is settling for $12.6M in fourth followed by 20th Century Fox’s Logan in fifth with $10.1M and a running fourth weekend take of $201.46M.
Warner Bros.’ $20M-budgeted R-rated CHIPS, a feature adaptation of the 1980s hit NBC show directed by and starring Dax Shepard, along with Kristen Bell and Michael Pena is road kill with a $7.6M opening.
We’ll have more for you soon. Our previous update on how family branded films took the weekend by storm is in the above link.
