Box Office Week: Beauty and the Beast #1 again with great $88.3M, surpassing $300M domestic and $600M worldwide in just two weeks. Meanwhile Power Rangers surprises at #2 with strong $40.5M, Life flops at #4 with $12.6M, and CHIPS bombs at #7 with $7.6M.

Rank	Title	Domestic Gross (Weekend)	Worldwide Gross (Cume)	Week #
1	Beauty and the Beast (2017)	$88,347,000	$690,252,887	2
2	Power Rangers (2017)	$40,500,000	$59,200,000	1
3	Kong: Skull Island	$14,425,000	$392,102,238	3
4	Life (2017)	$12,600,000	$28,700,000	1
5	Logan	$10,145,000	$565,477,118	4

Notable Box Office Stories:

• If the critics didn't totally fall in love with Beauty and the Beast it seems the audiences have as the film had the fourth best second weekend of all time, scoring $88.5M as the #1 spot. The film was actually the 6th highest opening weekend ever so being able to jump up two spots on best second weekend list shows how good the staying power for the film is, dropping just 49%. Already the film has passed Logan to be the highest grossing film of the year, as well as the highest grossing live action musical beating a record held by Grease for more than three decades. The film has already passed $300M domestic and is the fourth fastest film to reach that milestone, doing so in just 10 days. Overseas the film has surpassed $600M and will pass $700M by Tuesday. Already the film is domestically the 16th highest grossing PG rated film of all time just above Attack of the Clones and just below The Sorcerer's Stone. The film marks another incredible success for Disney, as this is the fourth film in a row for them to pass $600M worldwide (previous ones being Rogue One, Moana, and Doctor Strange). Baring a surprise upset by Ghost in the Shell, Beauty and the Beast should easily maintain #1 next weekend and its rocketship journey towards $1B and beyond seems to be unstoppable.

• Despite low tracking numbers and mediocre reviews going against it Power Rangers defied the odds earning $40.5M this weekend to come in at #2. In fact the film has earned more in just one weekend than the entire lifetime run of the original 1995 Power Rangers film, showing that the current market is stronger for the film than some may have feared. This film is an interesting one to watch for two reasons. One it is very clearly the first $100M+ franchise bait for 90s nostalgia, whereas 80s nostalgia like Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have led the way in the past. Secondly, Lionsgate is in desperate need of a franchise, now that Hunger Games is out and Divergent has failed in spectacular fashion. Clearly Lionsgate wants to tap back into that market and so far it seems they've succeeded fairly well. The audience breakdown was 30% under the age of 18 and 50% under the age of 25. That's a very lucrative market and one that can be extremely brand loyal. Even better the film scored an A on Cinemascore so seems once again audiences don't match critics here and could be very willing for a sequel. However there is that surprisingly steep budget to consider, though Lionsgate and Rangers' parent company Saban could be fine with some sunk costs for a possible franchise start. The film had a soft opening overseas, a solid $18.7M but could possibly have big earning in places like Japan. Overall though I think Lionsgate is happy here. They surprised the odds and the audience so I think even if its legs are bad I'm willing to bet a Power Rangers 2 is almost guaranteed.

• Despite one of the most aggressive ad campaigns of the year it seems there was only so much interest Sony could inspire for people to see Life as it opened to a very weak $12.6M. It seemed Sony tried it's best trying to surpass the dull title and standard story with an insane amount of trailers, TV spot coverage, internet marketing, and just general brand saturation but the results were incredibly poor even for R-rated film. This time the audiences agreed dead on with the critics, as the film received a dismal C+ on Cinemascore, so don't expect this one to be a small scale charmer. The real hope now is overseas, but with so many other flashy Hollywood blockbusters on the horizon the film will likely suffer. With a budget of $58M and an advertising budget at least double or even triple that Life will be one of the quieter bombs of the year, but another Sony bomb none the less.

• Just because you look like 21 Jump St and act like 21 Jump St doesn't mean you make money like 21 Jump St as CHiPs, the latest ironic remake of a classic 70s/80s TV show, has bombed horribly, opening at #7 with $7.6M. It's not a major surprise as the film is one of the worst reviewed of the year and received a weak B- on Cinemascore, so certainly what little legs could be expected from the film are gone and it won't even pass its modest $25M budget domestically. One could look at CHiPs and worry about the prospect of the next big budget ironic TV remake Baywatch and worry, but I think increased star power has that film covered. I think this is the failure of one film not the failure of the entire genre, though that will be tested soon enough.

Films Reddit Wants to Follow

This is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.

Title	Domestic Gross (Cume)	Worldwide Gross (Cume)	Budget	Week #
Your Name	N/A	$328,013,836	Unk	30
Moonlight	$27,694,669	$55,734,669	$1.5M	23
Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them	$233,985,873	$812,485,873	$180M	19
Moana	$248,380,355	$617,080,355	$150M	16
La La Land	$150,233,687	$427,333,687	$30M	16
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story	$531,336,499	$1,055,121,310	$200M	15
Sing	$269,691,125	$599,991,125	$75M	14
Split	$137,254,130	$265,254,130	$10M	10
John Wick: Chapter Two	$90,859,007	$159,159,007	$40M	7
Get Out	$147,499,045	$154,499,045	$4.5M	5

Notable Film Closings

Title	Domestic Gross (Cume)	Worldwide Gross (Cume)	Budget
Why Him?	$60,323,786	$117,734,028	$38M
Rings	$27,793,018	$81,876,348	$25M
A Cure for Wellness	$8,106,986	$21,368,784	$40M

As always /r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.

Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at /r/moviesboxoffice.

Submitted March 27, 2017 at 10:57PM by mi-16evil http://ift.tt/2o2guMo