In holdover news, Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast earned a superb $23.557 million on its second Friday, which was an understandable drop of 63% and pushed the Emma Watson/Dan Stevens musical to $252.1m domestic. That is the seventh-biggest "day eight" Friday gross of all time. But since it's a kid-powered title and not as much of a conventional blockbuster, we're still looking at a possible $89m second weekend, which would be the fourth-biggest non-opening weekend of all time behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($149m), Jurassic World ($105m) and The Avengers ($103m).
Of note, if it ends up below $88 million, it'll be the fifth-biggest such weekend behind the $88m third weekend of The Force Awakens, but I think Disney will cope. The film has now earned a jaw-dropping $541m worldwide in just eight days of global release. And the likely over/under $317m 10-day domestic total will rank fourth behind the aforementioned three blockbusters. So yeah, the $160m is going to end the weekend as one of the fastest-grossing movies of all time over its first ten days, with plenty more still left in the can.
Not to be outdone, Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. and Legendary's Kong: Skull Island is holding up quite well even with the monstrous competition. The $185 million monster mash earned $3.7m (-49%) on its third Friday for a likely $14m (-49%) weekend and $132m 17-day cume. But the film earned an obscene $22m opening day in China for what should be an over/under $60m opening weekend. It's opening in Japan today so I will be very curious to see what that worldwide total looks like this time tomorrow. It's going to be at least $350m+ and potentially quite a bit more.
20th Century Fox's Logan held tight as well with a $2.675 million (-42%) Friday setting the stage for a $10m (-41%) fourth weekend. That will push the $127m, R-rated comic book drama over the $200m domestic mark. A $220m+ domestic total is still in the cards for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine finale.
And Blumhouse's Get Out continued to hold strong with a $2.51 million (-33%) Friday for a likely $8.5m (-37%) sixth weekend and whopping $147m domestic total for Universal/Comcast Corp. Jordan Peele's social thriller already passed Split this week to become Blumhouse's top domestic earner, and it will soon be the third-biggest R-rated horror film in North American box office history behind only Hannibal ($165m in 2001) and The Exorcist ($232m with $193m of that back in 1973).
Lionsgate's faith-based drama The Shack earned another $1.04 million (-34%) on Friday for a likely $3.9m (-34%) weekend and terrific $49m 24-day total. BH Tilt's The Belko Experiment earned another $555,000 on its second Friday, an expected 63% drop that honestly could have been worse considering the genre and the competition. The low-budget grindhouse horror film should make around $1.74m (-58%) over the weekend for a $7.5m 10-day total.
And even with Power Rangers, X-Men, and giant monsters, The LEGO Batman Movie stuck around, with a $450,000 Friday (-62%) for a likely $1.779m (-61%) weekend that will push the $80m animated action comedy over $170m domestic.
In various odds and ends, T2: Trainspotting expanded to 59 theaters yesterday and earned $128,000. That should give the $18 million-budgeted Sony release (an acquisition that has already made $35m overseas) a $423k weekend (+148%) for a $7k per-location-average and $657k domestic total. Kristen Stewart's Personal Shopper expanded to 107 theaters in weekend three and should make around $235k (+54%) for a new $564k domestic cume.
And, finally, Lionsgate's Oscar-winnning La La Land finally danced across the $150 million domestic milestone. If it can make it to $151m, past Divergent, it will be Lionsgate's biggest non-Twilight/Hunger Games domestic grosser ever.
