Beauty and the Beast continued to enchant audiences in its second weekend in US theatres. Disney’s live-action remake of its 1991 animation easily topped the charts with $88.3m, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The film was the highpoint of a weekend dominated by nostalgia-driven fare, with Power Rangers and CHiPs also released in cinemas.
Of the two new releases, Lionsgate’s Power Rangers proved the stronger, earning $40.5m to grab the no. 2 spot. The film an update of the 90s TV series about a group of teenagers who morph into superheroes and pilot giant robot machines, received middling reviews, but did better with cinemagoers. Audiences gave it a promising A CinemaScore, suggesting that it might have staying power in the coming weeks.
Power Rangers’ audiences were 60 percent male, while Beauty and the Beast crowds remained largely female. The divide allowed both to succeed in the crowded marketplace.
Warner Brothers’ CHiPs, on the other hand, underwhelmed audiences, critics and the studio. Dax Shepard wrote, directed and starred in the action comedy based on the 1970s and 80s TV show about the California Highway Patrol.
Costing $25m to produce, the film wasn’t the biggest risk, but its $7.6m debut disappointed. The film, which debuted at seventh place, also got a deathly B- CinemaScore from audiences. Critics were similarly unimpressed, with the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score currently hovering at 20%
“Brand recognition will get you far — it gives you a leg up before you even start — but at the end of the day, it comes down to the movie itself,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. “No matter how much brand equity they have with a particular title, the real test is: How do critics and audiences respond to that film?
“You still have to deliver a solid movie that will entice people to spend their hard-earned money to go see something that they already know, or already know about,” he said.
That’s where Disney has succeeded, with its latest remake earning $317 million in just 10 days in North American theaters and $690.3m worldwide.
“With Beauty and the Beast there have been decades of goodwill and the Disney brand and so many more elements going into it than just the intellectual property,” Dergarabedian said. “Disney makes it look easy. Others have had more challenges.”
Also this weekend, the sci-fi thriller Life failed to connect with audiences, debuting in fourth place with $12.6m behind holdover Kong: Skull Island with $14.4 million.
The R-rated space film stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds as astronauts who discover that the alien life form they have brought on board might be dangerous. With a $58m price tag, Sony and Skydance’s Life has a long journey to profitability.
Dergarabedian said that part of the reason for its muted launch might be that recent sci-fi films, such as Passengers and Arrival, are available for home viewing. Alien: Covenant, the latest iteration of the Alien franchise, which Life has been widely compared to, is also on the horizon.
Despite some flops, the March 2017 box office, which crossed $1bn this weekend, has become the biggest March of all time, with help from the strength of Logan, Kong: Skull Island, Get Out and Beauty and the Beast.
