'Boss Baby' Repeats at #1 While 'Beauty and the Beast' Closes in on $1 Billion Worldwide
Fox and DreamWorks Animation's The Boss Baby topped the weekend box office for a second week in a row, once again leading Disney's Beauty and the Beast over the course of what felt like a placeholder weekend as far as new releases are concerned. While Sony's Smurfs: The Lost Village performed mostly as expected and New Line's Going in Style over performed based on expectations, it seems most moviegoers are merely waiting for the next weekend's release of The Fate of the Furious as it looks to become the second 2017 release to debut over $100 million. Otherwise, this weekend also featured a satisfactory opening for Pure Flix's The Case for Christ, which could see its estimates receive a bump today as a result of it being Palm Sunday, while last weekend's release of Ghost in the Shell dipped over 60% in its second weekend in release.

At the top of the box office it's Fox's The Boss Baby as the animated feature dropped 48% for an estimated $26.3 million sophomore session as its domestic cume is now just shy of $90 million after ten days in release. Internationally, Boss Baby added another $37.5 million this weekend from 46 markets as its international cume now stands at $110.4 million for a global total just shy of $200 million.

In second, Disney's Beauty and the Beast continued its climb toward $1 billion worldwide, adding an estimated $25 million as its domestic cume topped $430 million and another $36.1 million internationally for a worldwide total over $975 million. Internationally the film saw no new openings this weekend and won't see any more new openings until April 21st when it debuts in Japan, but by that time it will have already topped $1 billion globally.

In third is where we find Sony's Smurfs: The Lost Village, which industry expectations had opening in the mid-teens, which is to say with its estimated $14 million opening it more or less hit that target. The film was well received by opening day audiences as the 18-and-under demographic gave it an "A+" CinemaScore, while the overall audience CinemaScore was an "A", a touch above the "A-" the two previous Smurfs films received. Internationally the film grossed an estimated $22 million from 58 markets for an international total of $42.1 million and a global cume that currently stands at $56.1 million. This weekend's openings included a $2.2 million debut in Brazil along with France ($1.9m); Mexico ($1.6m); Germany ($1.5m); and Italy ($1m) Upcoming releases include an April 21 debut in China and an April 28 release in South Korea.

In fourth is the weekend's second new wide release, New Line's comedy remake Going in Style, which over performed based on what was expected to be an opening around $8 million as the film debuted with an estimated $12.5 million from 3,061 theaters. Opening day audiences gave the film a "B+" CinemaScore, though more importantly the film's target demographic of audience members 50 and over gave the film an "A-". Opening weekend demographics show the film playing to an audience that was 47% male vs. 53% female, of which 90% were over the age of 35 years old. Budgeted at a reported $25 million, it will be interesting to see just how long this film's legs might be.

Internationally, Going for Style opened in 32 markets where it brought in an estimated $4.3 million. This includes a fourth place opening in Russia with an estimated $800k; $688k in the UK; $520k in the United Arab Emirates; $320k in the Netherlands and a $243k opening in Brazil. This week the film will continue its international roll-out, opening in Spain on Wednesday and Germany a day later followed by Australia on April 20 and Mexico on April 21.

Rounding out the top five is Paramount's Ghost in the Shell, which debuted to a disappointing $18.7 million last weekend and its sophomore session wasn't much better as it dropped over 60% for an estimated $7.2 million. Internationally the film brought in an estimated $41.3 million, which includes a $21.4 million ($2.5m from 389 IMAX locations) opening in China as its overseas total climbs to $92.8 million for a global cume just shy of $125 million.

Elsewhere, WB's Kong: Skull Island dropped 32.2%, finishing with an estimated $5.8 million as its domestic cume now stands at $156.5 million. The film also continues to perform internationally where it brought in an estimated $16 million this weekend, bringing the overseas total to $377.8 million for a global haul just shy of $535 million, topping the $529 million worldwide performance of 2014's Godzilla.

Additionally, Universal's Get Out continued to hold steady, dropping a top ten best, 29% for a ninth place finish and an estimated $4 million as its domestic cume has now topped $162 million. Rounding out the top ten is Pure Flix's The Case for Christ, finishing with an estimated $3.9 million from 1,174 theaters and an "A+" CinemaScore.

Outside the top ten, FUNimation's release of Your Name is expected to bring in $1.6 million this weekend from ~300 theaters for a $5,281 per theater average; Neon's release of Colossal into four theaters brought in an estimated $125,809 ($31,452 PTA); STX released Their Finest into four theaters where it brought in an estimated $77,000 ($19,250 PTA); FilmRise's release of Truman into three theaters brought in an estimated $25,000 ($8,333 PTA); and IFC's release of Graduation debuted with an estimated $11,040 from two theaters.

Also, Fox Searchlight's limited release of Gifted into 56 theaters brought in an estimated $476,000 ($8,500 PTA). The studio has already planned a Wednesday expansion into ~850 theaters followed by a continued expansion next Friday into ~1,000 theaters and what is expected to be over 1,500 theaters by April 21.

Overall, the weekend saw the top twelve gross a combined $114.5 million, down over 30% compared to last weekend and down 7% compared to the same weekend last year. However, next weekend looks to be something of a different story...

Next weekend sees the release of The Fate of the Furious in over 4,200 theaters, which means it's already looking to become the widest release of April, topping the 4,028 theaters The Jungle Book opened in last year before debuting with over $103 million and more than the 4,004 theaters Furious 7 premiered in back in 2015, when it opened with $147.1 million. One interesting factor when forecasting Furious 8 is the fact the seventh installment had the sentimental aspect surrounding the untimely passing of franchise star Paul Walker and while audience goodwill and excitement most certainly remains for the franchise, can it manage to match its predecessor's monster opening?

In addition to its domestic debut, Fate of the Furious will also be opening in 66 international markets next week, beginning on Wednesday in Australia, France, Korea, Belgium, Egypt, Indonesia, French-Switzerland and Trinidad. Also of note, that opening includes 1,074 IMAX screens globally including North America and China, making it the widest day and date opening in IMAX history.

You can check out all of this weekend's estimated results right here and we'll be updating our charts with weekend actuals on Monday afternoon.

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