There are a lot of surprising right now things at the weekend box office. First, SABAN’S POWER RANGERS opened with over $41 million, which is shocking to me. Let’s be honest with ourselves for a second about the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers show; it was a b-level ripoff of the bigger and better Marvel and DC characters, but it filled a teenage superhero void in the 90’s. But with Captain America, Spider-Man and Batman everywhere you turn, the Power Rangers have no place in society any more. Or so I thought. Apparently, the executives at Lionsgate have a much better idea of what people want than I do because this incarnation will make in one weekend what the 1995 film made in its lifetime. The second surprise of this weekend is that BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is flirting with $100 million in its second weekend. That’s a lot of dough for a second week run. Finally, the last surprise of the weekend is the fact that LIFE, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, only pulled in about $12 million. It got good reviews, has two big names and doesn’t have much competition in terms of Sci-fi or horror, so $12 million seems like a disappointment.
Next week sees the release of Scarlet Johansson’s GHOST IN THE SHELL adaptation. Hopefully, people are past the whitewashing and we can focus on whether or not it’s a worthy adaptation. It’s going to be a tough sell given the competition at the weekend box office. Then there’s BOSS BABY, which looks terrible, but might do well considering there aren’t any other animated kids movies in theaters right now. But my guess is that BEAUTY AND THE BEAST will take the top spot again, followed by GHOST IN THE SHELL. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.
1. Beauty and the Beast $91m
2. Saban’s Power Rangers $41.6m
3. Kong: Skull Island $14m
4. Life $12.3m
5. Logan $10m
6. Get Out $8.9m
7. CHIPS $7.3m
8. The Shack $3.9m
9. The Belko Experiment $1.8m
10. The LEGO Batman Movie $1.7m
