‘Beauty and the Beast’ dazzles again, ‘Power Rangers’ off to solid start

Disney’s second weekend of blockbuster Beauty and the Beast is dominating movie going in North America with $88.3 million at 4,210 locations — capping the best March ever.
Lionsgate’s rebooted Power Rangers is launching with a solid $40.5 million this weekend while Sony’s space-thriller Life showed only moderate traction with $12.6 million. Warner Bros.’ action-comedy Chips opened with a disappointing $7.6 million at 2,464 sites.

The Beauty and the Beast weekend is one for the record books as the fourth-largest second weekend of all time, trailing only Star Wars: The Force Awakens at $149 million, Jurassic World at $106 million, and Marvel’s The Avengers at $103 million.

Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast, declined just 49% from its opening weekend, which was the seventh-best ever. And after just 10 days in North American theatres, Beauty and the Beast is already 55th on the all-time domestic list at $317 million. It’s the fourth-largest 10-day domestic total ever.

Beauty and the Beast, along with Fox’s Logan, Warner’s Kong: Skull Island, and Universal’s Get Out, have led a charge over the past month that has given the domestic box office a major boost. According to comScore, March box office has already hit $1 billion for the first time — with a few days left in the month.

“March has become a rockstar of a month and in particular 2017 enjoyed a perfect storm of new hits and strong February releases that showed amazing staying power like Get Out and The Lego Batman Movie,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with comScore.

“The cumulative allure of an impressive slate of films conjured up a flat out great month in theatres, generating impressive momentum as the industry charges into what promises to be a furious April and a smashing summer movie season that kicks off in May with Guardians of the Galaxy 2.”

Last year’s March set a record with $948.8 million domestically, led by Disney’s Zootopia ($255.9 million for the month) and Warner Bros.’ Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($209.1 million).
Power Rangers, a re-imagining of the 1990s television show about five teenage superheroes, outperformed expectations of about $30 million at 3,693 locations. The film earned an A cinemaScore from customers and A+ from the 30% of moviegoers under 18. The audience was 60% male.