Melissa McCarthy's The Boss and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice are in a tight race for the weekend number one with a mere $45,000 giving the edge to The Boss based on estimates. Also opening this weekend, STX's Hardcore Henry fell short of expectations while Fox Searchlight's Demolition was all-too-apt a name for the Jake Gyllenhaal starrer as it managed to barely creep over a $1 million opening.
Beginning with The Boss, its #1 finish is secondary to the proven star power of Melissa McCarthy as she top-lines yet another $20+ million opener. Excluding the limited release of St. Vincent and her small appearance in This is 40, McCarthy's streak of starring in a film that has grossed over $20 million in its opening weekend has now been extended to six, going back to 2011's Bridesmaids. Not even the overwhelmingly negative reviews or lackluster "C+" CinemaScore could prevent The Boss from posting a $23.48 million weekend, though that CinemaScore suggests The Boss will likely follow Tammy and fall short of $100 million over the course of its domestic run. Nevertheless, with a reported budget of only $29 million, this is yet another success for McCarthy and future success seems pretty much guaranteed with her starring in the upcoming Ghostbusters revival, set for release in mid-June.
Currently situated just behind The Boss, Batman v Superman dropped 54.3% this weekend as the legs on this one are proving quite short. The estimated $23.43 million weekend is pretty much right in line with Mojo's forecast and it wouldn't be much of a surprise if we see a similar drop next weekend.
Batman v Superman currently sits just shy of $300 million domestically, making it the third highest grossing DC Comics release of all-time domestically as it passed Man of Steel ($291m) this weekend. Internationally it added another $34 million as its global cume now stands at $783.4 million, ranking 59th all-time, just behind Spider-Man 2.
Finishing in fifth, and a couple million short of even the lowest of expectations, STX's Hardcore Henry opened with an estimated $5 million this weekend from 3,015 theaters. Of course, "expectations" were hard to nail down as the first-person actioner is hardly a typical release and comparisons were hard to come by. 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.
Also finishing in the top five, Disney's Zootopia is now just $4 million shy of $300 million domestically as it dropped only 25.7% and finished the weekend with an estimated $14.3 million. Worldwide, Zootopia is now up to $852.5 million with its opening in Japan yet to come, putting it just $4.3 million behind Inside Out.
Finishing in fourth, Universal's My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 finished with $6.4 million, representing a 42.8% drop in its third weekend as its cume now stands at $46.7 million.
Elsewhere, Fox Searchlight's release of Demolition into 854 theaters managed only $1.1 million. The film entered the weekend with less than stellar reviews and without that kind of buzz a film like this is going to struggle.
In limited release, Drafthouse's release of Karyn Kusama's thriller The Invitation brought in an estimated $67,739 from ten theaters and Paladin's High Strung finished with an estimated $45,255 from 100 theaters. Zeitgeist's Vita Activa brought in an estimated $8,496 from one theater while Kino Lorber's Neon Bull took in an estimated $7,133 from one theater.
Next weekend, Disney's The Jungle Book will be arriving in domestic theaters, though it got a jump start this weekend in a handful of international locations where it brought in $28.9 million. Included in that number is $7.6 million out of India, the second highest ever industry opening for a Western release, behind only Furious 7. The film lands stateside next weekend and stellar reviews (it's currently at 100% on RottenTomatoes) and advanced buzz point to a sizable opening weekend.
Additionally, Ice Cube leads a star-studded cast in Barbershop: The Next Cut next weekend and should deliver solid results. Along with The Jungle Book, the two films should deliver a powerful one-two punch to the mid-April box office. They'll be accompanied by Lionsgate's thriller Criminal starring Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Costner and A24's limited release of the excellent low budget thriller Green Room.
