One of the big questions about Batman V Superman‘s box office performance was which film would knock it out of the top spot in the weeks following release. With The Jungle Book coming out this Friday and The Huntsman coming out next weekend, not many people were predicting that it’d be The Boss, but here we are. The Boss, a lame-looking Melissa McCarthy vehicle, narrowly edged out BvS for the number-one spot this weekend, with an estimated $23.48 million to BvS‘s $23.435. That makes six $20 million+ openers for Melissa McCarthy in a row.
The Boss‘s audience was 59% female and 70% of those over 25, and the interesting thing about its solid performance is that no one seemed to like it very much. Its 18% Rotten Tomatoes rating is worse than BvS, and audience numbers are equally bad:
PostTrak’s 69% positive score for The Boss is lower than CinemaScore’s C+, and only 51% of the audience said it would recommend the McCarthy title to their friends. [Deadline]
Even if it ends up dropping like BvS, The Boss only cost $29 million to make and is looking like a lock to be profitable. Speaking of dropping like BvS, it fell another 55% this weekend, which isn’t great, but at $296.686m total it has already made more than Man of Steel domestically, and is coming up on $800 million globally. The question now is whether it can beat Deadpool‘s $358 million domestic. There are plenty of movies to compare it to, but the bottom line seems to be that Warner will ultimately be happy with it, but not so thrilled that they’ll be trying to copy it in their other comic book movies.
This weekend’s other new film was Hardcore Henry, from STX, which grossed $5 million. That was “a couple million short of even the lowest of expectations” according to BoxOfficeMojo, and even if you read that as mild hyperbole, most everyone seems to agree that $5 million was below expectations. I’d love to tell you what I thought, but it didn’t screen for critics here, the kind of decision I can never figure out. Critics aren’t going to hurt a movie like this too much even if they hate it. Why make it look like you’re embarrassed of it? Anyway.
Statistically, males dominated the film’s opening, making up 76% of the film’s weekend audience and of that audience 67% were between the ages of 17-34. In this respect STX managed to deliver on their target demographic as 72% of that audience played first-person video games. [BoxOfficeMojo]
Neat. Though apparently that demographic was only worth about $5 million.
Demolition also opened in 854 theaters this weekend, but without critical buzz it could only manage $1.1 million. Prospects aren’t great for limited arthouse-y releases that don’t get great reviews these days (50% on RT), even if I personally thought this one was pretty enjoyable.
Next week brings us The Jungle Book, Barbershop: The Next Cut, Criminal, and Green Room in limited release. I’m predicting big things for Barbershop, on account of everything Ice Cube touches seems to sh*t gold.
| Film | Weekend | Per Screen | ||
| 1 | The Boss | $23,480,000 | $6,747 | $23,480,00 |
| 2 | Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | $23,435,000 (-54.3) | $5,713 | $296,685,000 |
| 3 | Zootopia | $14,353,000 (-25.7) | $4,168 | $296,012,000 |
| 4 | My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 | $6,420,000 (-42.8) | $2,121 | $46,752,321 |
| 5 | Hardcore Henry | $5,096,000 |
$1,690 | $5,096,000 |
| 6 | Miracles From Heaven | $4,844,000 (-33.2) | $1,741 | $53,850,000 |
| 7 | God’s Not Dead 2 | $4,051,000 (-46.9) | $1,721 | $13,835,000 |
| 8 | Allegiant | $3,600,000 (-37.5) | $1,438 | $61,829,000 |
| 9 | 10 Cloverfield Lane | $3,000,000 (-34.3) | $1,591 | $67,975,000 |
| 10 | Eye in the Sky | $2,829,375 (-28.6) | $2,598 | $10,405,000 |
chart via ScreenCrush
Vince Mancini is a writer, comedian, and podcaster. A graduate of Columbia’s non-fiction MFA program, his work has appeared on FilmDrunk, the UPROXX network, the Portland Mercury, the East Bay Express, and all over his mom’s refrigerator. Fan FilmDrunk on Facebook, find the latest movie reviews here.