Disney's Jungle Book Rules the Box Office with $103.6M

MovieWeb

By B. Alan Orange

Published Apr 17, 2016

The Jungle Book runs wild at the Box Office with $103.6M in first place, while Barbershop 2 comes in second with $20M

Disney is set to have a stellar year, with Zootopia already a blockbuster smash hit, and Captain America: Civil War ready to dominate the summer box office. Before that happens, Disney released The Jungle book into the wild this weekend, and it proved to be another giant win for the studio. The Jon Favreau directed wildlife adventure based on Rudyard Kipling's classic book series ran away with an estimated $103.6M at the box office this weekend.

The Jungle Book is the number two biggest April opener of all time, second only to 2015's Furious 7, which nabbed $147.1M during its opening weekend in this same timeframe last year. The Jungle Book's first three day grosses outscored Captain America: Winter Soldier, which opened on April 4, 2014 to the tune of $95M, knocking it back into third place.

While exact estimates haven't come in, Disney is calling $103.6M for the weekend, expecting a strong Sunday. The Jungle Book has the biggest opening of any PG rated title in April, and is only the second PG-rated Disney release to bring in over $100M on it's opening weekend. Alice in Wonderland took in $116.1M when it opened in March 2010.

Both Zootopia and The Jungle Book have been scoring well around the world. Zootopia zoomed past the $300M in North America, bringing Disney's global take to $2.095B. This is the 15th consecutive year that Disney has reached this mark. Internationally, The Jungle Book pulled in an additional $136.1M. It opened last weekend in 15 markets, and expanded to 49 starting this past Friday. The International tally is currently at $187.4M. That brings its worldwide grosses to $290.97M, certainly helping the studio get to its $2B goal for 2016.

It's speculated that The Jungle Book will keep its number one spot for the next three weeks. And then Disney will overtake the marketplace again with Marvel's Captain America: Civil War, which some suspect will be the biggest movie of the year. The Jungle Book currently has an A CinemaScore. 97% of the audience gave the movie an A or B rating, and the family adventure is currently 97% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. According to Deadline, the movie also scored big in IMAX, pulling in $10.4M from the large format theaters.

Coming in second place with an estimated $20M is Barbershop: The Next Cut, which has also been well reviewed and garners an A- CinemaScore. It is currently at 91% fresh on the Tomatometer. The film wasn't as successful as Barbershop 2: Back In Business, which took in $24.4 back in February of 2004. The original Barbershop grossed $20.6M during its 2002 premiere.

The third big newcomer this weekend, Lionsgate's Criminal, is on track to take in $5.8M for it's first weekend. The movie stars Kevin Costner, and is his lowest opening for a wide release. Melissa McCarthy's The Boss took third place with an additional $10M. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice dropped all the way to fourth place in its fourth weekend of release, taking in another $9.2M. That rounds out the top five. You can see the full top ten list here, with all box office numbers an estimate until final numbers arrive on Monday.

PREDICTED WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: