Saturday Update: Disney reports that The Jungle Book took in an estimated $32.4 million on opening day Friday, including Thursday evening’s $4.2 million launch. Obviously, this is a spectacular debut for the studio’s latest live action fairy tale reimagining, and their biggest debut in that sub-genre since 2010’s Alice In Wonderland (which pulled a $40.81 million first day). This is also the second best opening day in director Jon Favreau’s career to this point (trailing only the original Iron Man‘s $35.2 million).
Jungle Book blew past the opening days of last year’s Cinderella ($23 million), 2014’s Maleficent ($24.3 million), and 2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful ($24.1 million). Yesterday’s haul also stands as the fourth largest day in April history, only behind Furious 7 ($67.4 million), Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($36.9 million), and Fast Five ($34.4 million).
Strong word of mouth will definitely continue to propel the film as its received a strong 91 percent score from Flixster audiences as of this morning, complementing its stellar 95 percent score from Rotten Tomatoes critics. Needless to say, Jungle Book is adding to the unprecedented wave of critical and commercial smash hits Disney is currently riding. For the weekend, we’re projecting a tally around $95.5 million, which would make it April’s second best debut of all-time behind last year’s monster Furious 7 opening and ahead of Winter Soldier‘s $95 million two years ago.
Also delivering a strong debut on Friday was MGM and New Line’s Barbershop: The Next Cut with an estimated $7.04 million. A fantastic 91% Rotten Tomatoes is backing the franchise sequel which is successfully counter-programming the big family flick this weekend, while further cementing the drawing power of Ice Cube and the film’s ensemble. Warner Bros. notes the pic received a strong “A-” CinemaScore. BoxOffice is projecting an opening weekend of $19.4 million.
The Boss came in third placed yesterday with $3.09 million, giving it an eight-day haul of $33.3 million. Look for a $10.3 million sophomore weekend.
Batman v Superman was down 61 percent from last Friday to $2.36 million yesterday, giving it $304.7 million to date as it eyes a frame around $9.1 million.
Meanwhile, Zootopia filled out the top five with another $2.14 million yesterday, remarkably down just 38.5 percent from last Friday despite the Jungle Book audience overlap. The animated film officially crossed the $300 million threshold yesterday, giving it $301.4 million to date and counting. BoxOffice projects a $9.0 million weekend.
Last but not least, Criminal debut with $2.06 million yesterday, in line with the recent first day of Triple 9 ($2.145 million) two months ago. Criminal should land with a weekend around $5.8 million.
Our early weekend estimates chart is below. Boxoffice Pro will update with official weekend estimates from the studios on Sunday morning.
Boxoffice Pro’s Weekend Estimates for Friday, April 15 – Sunday, April 17:
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Jungle Book (2016) | $95,500,000 | — | 4,028 | — | $23,709 | $95,500,000 | 1 | Disney |
| 2 | Barbershop: The Next Cut | $19,400,000 | — | 2,661 | — | $7,290 | $19,400,000 | 1 | Warner Bros. / New Line |
| 3 | The Boss | $10,300,000 | -56% | 3,495 | 15 | $2,947 | $40,481,910 | 2 | Universal |
| 4 | Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | $9,100,000 | -61% | 3,505 | -597 | $2,596 | $311,401,730 | 4 | Warner Bros. |
| 5 | Zootopia | $9,000,000 | -37% | 3,209 | -235 | $2,805 | $308,243,756 | 7 | Disney |
| 6 | Criminal (2016) | $5,800,000 | — | 2,683 | — | $2,162 | $5,800,000 | 1 | Lionsgate / Summit |
| 7 | My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 | $3,500,000 | -46% | 2,297 | -730 | $1,524 | $52,335,490 | 4 | Universal |
| 8 | Miracles from Heaven | $2,000,000 | -58% | 2,082 | -701 | $961 | $57,030,812 | 5 | Sony / Columbia |
| 9 | God’s Not Dead 2 | $1,700,000 | -60% | 1,585 | -769 | $1,073 | $16,944,171 | 3 | Pure Flix |
| 10 | Hardcore Henry | $1,500,000 | -71% | 3,015 | 0 | $498 | $8,172,672 | 2 | STX Entertainment |
| 11 | 10 Cloverfield Lane | $1,200,000 | -59% | 1,085 | -801 | $1,106 | $69,934,681 | 6 | Paramount |
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Deadpool | $965,000 | -54% | 791 | -644 | $1,220 | $360,078,249 | 10 | Fox |
| 2 | Meet the Blacks | $500,000 | -76% | 584 | -423 | $856 | $8,377,334 | 3 | Freestyle Releasing |
| 3 | Everybody Wants Some!! | $425,000 | -13% | 134 | 71 | $3,172 | $1,526,103 | 3 | Paramount |
| 4 | Demolition | $295,000 | -73% | 862 | 8 | $342 | $1,824,019 | 2 | Fox Searchlight |
| 5 | Kung Fu Panda 3 | $285,000 | -36% | 293 | -48 | $973 | $141,325,837 | 12 | Fox / DreamWorks Animation |
| 6 | The Revenant (2015) | $165,000 | -33% | 222 | -64 | $743 | $183,241,210 | 17 | Fox |
| 7 | Spotlight | $50,000 | -37% | 103 | -9 | $485 | $44,813,232 | 24 | Open Road |
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Divergent Series: Allegiant | $1,300,000 | -63% | 0 | -2503 | — | $63,941,161 | 5 | Lionsgate / Summit |
| 2 | Sing Street | $55,000 | — | 5 | — | $11,000 | $55,000 | 1 | The Weinstein Company |
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Friday Update: Sources report that The Jungle Book debuted to $4.2 million on Thursday night, setting the stage for a breakout opening weekend. By comparison, last year’s Cinderella retelling from Disney opened to $2.3 million on Thursday on its way to a $67.9 million weekend. The figure even tops the $4.2 million Thursday start of 2014’s Maleficent, which had the superior advantage in terms of pulling a bigger pre-Friday audience due to its mid-summer release when many kids were out of school. It’s also ahead of Alice In Wonderland‘s $3.9 million midnight launch back in 2010, but that film obviously didn’t have the benefit of much earlier shows at 7pm like Jungle Book. Still, the Cinderella seems most valid and even with more front-loading it spells the likelihood of a $100 million+ opening weekend for Jungle Book — especially since reviews and early word of mouth are stellar.
Meanwhile, Barbershop: The Next Cut posted a solid debut of its own with $735,000 last night. That’s a fantastic start and points to an opening weekend likely north of $20 million.
Official Friday estimates and early weekend projections will be published here on Boxoffice Pro Saturday morning.
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