Box Office: 'Jungle Book' and 'Green Room' Get Vicious
Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 4:00PM 
This weekend's box office winners were all about the thrills - one for the whole family, and the other decidedly not. It's like summer is already upon us!
Especially after the deflation of BvS, everyone was expecting The Jungle Book to be a big hit this weekend, though perhaps not quite as massive as the end result. The live action / performance capture retelling from director Jon Favreau (Iron Man and Chef) closed out the weekend above $100M, becoming the second largest April opening behind last year's Furious 7. Maybe the unexpected boost came from interest in 3D (I've seen comments on Twitter calling it second to Avatar for stellar use of the medium).
But Jungle's huge success isn't the only thing that will have the folks at Disney celebrating: their spring animated sensation Zootopia also crossed the $300M mark. This year is going to be one of the tightest races ever Best Animated Feature Oscar, and Zootopia should have a good shot with this level of success despite its spring release disadvantage.
In limited release, fashion documentary The First Monday in May was the highest among the debuts, but A24's Green Room took the weekend's highest screen average on only 3 screens. The indie label has used this strategy before and almost without fail, turning niche films like the uber-violent Green Room into a miniature, must-see event. Oscar is certainly out of the question and the film's reported brutality will likely keep it from trouncing Ex Machina's grosses, but it looks like A24 has another hit on their hands.
TOP SIX
01 The Jungle Book $103.6 NEW
02 Barbershop: The Next Cut $20.2 NEW
03 The Boss $10.2 (cum. $40.4)
04 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Just More Superheroes $9.0 (cum. $311.3)
05 Zootopia $8.2 (cum. $307.5)
06 Criminal $5.8 NEW
LIMITED HITS AND NEWBIES
16 Everybody Wants Some!! $.4 (cum. $1.5) 134 screens Review & Review
20 Miles Ahead $.2 (cum. .6) 47 screens Review
23 The First Monday in May $.1 NEW 20 Screens Interview
26 Green Room $91K NEW 3 Screens
28 Sing Street $69K NEW 5 Screens
48 The Measure of a Man $11K NEW 2 Screens Review
What did you see this weekend??
Reader Comments (15)
Wow, Disney is on a roll. I hope their employees get some good bonuses.
Saw The Jungle book and it was technically impressive but should´ve skipped the songs altogether. If ur gonna see it, see it in 3D and stay for the closing credits!
@ home, Hush on Netflix. Well made but shallow-u´ve seen it many times before, but offers some nice thrills.
"Everybody Wants Some!!", which I enjoyed so much more than I had anticipated. The cast works casual magic together and the ending shot is note perfect.
I saw Eye in the Sky which was ok. Interesting concept but maybe a better director could have done something more with it.
I also watched Eastern Promises which is still great.
Agree with Jonathan. I was 19 then and that movie is perfect rendering. Blake Jenner is total make out material. Good performances throughout.
I saw Huntsman: Winter's War. Talk about identifying what was wrong in the first movie and fixing them. Loved the chemistry of the cast. Dodgy opening aside, I quite enjoyed it (and Charlize's costume changes lol!).
Saw The Jungle Book too and it deserves all the praise. One of the few movies that's worth seeing in 3D. Neel Sethi was great. The children and a lot of the adults in the theater were really into it, screaming whenever Shere Khan pounced and thoroughly creeped out by Kaa.
Whooo!!! Lupita's second consecutive movie to open over $100 million!
It won't be long before we get to see her face in one of these.
I watched (still playing) the impeachment process of dilma moving forward here in brazil... :(
I saw:
Confirmation-good if not as political as I was hoping.
Everybody Wants Some-brilliant, wonderfully-felt. Loved it.
R.I.P brazilian democracy
So sad
Saw EYE IN THE SKY. As a thriller it mostly works, but as a drama it is manipulative in that frustrating way where it knows the inherent issues with its topic and yet doesn't go far enough in addressing them. Would have worked as a play though, perhaps, three rooms on a stage, each looking out on the audience. Would be interesting, I think, and without the necessities of making a war thriller film could have teased out more of the drama and ditched the oh-isn't-she-cute girl images.
I saw The Jungle Book - considering that the cartoon is one of my least favourite Disney films, I was surprised at how much I loved it. The CGI was surreal. I know that stuff wasn't real but it's still hard to believe.
Also started watching Bunheads so I can appreciate the cameos on the Gilmore Girls revival, and damn that show was good.
The World of Henry Orient...hadn't seen it since I was a kid!
The lead girls, Tippy Walker and Merrie Spaeth, were delightul. Angela Lansbury slinky and not matronly for once! Peter Sellers, Paula Prentiss in great form, plus a great cast of character actors...even Grandpa Munster, Al Lewis, pops up!
I'm a sucker for older movies with location shooting, so it was terrific to see NYC in the early '60s.
Fun flick, and I want to live in that multi-level brownstone!
I saw The Jungle Book with 9- and 7-year-old nieces and we all really enjoyed it. Yes, the songs probably weren't necessary but they didn't really detract from it, either. And I agree with the earlier comment that the CGI was fantastic. When Mowgli hugs his wolf mom it looked completely real.
On the TV front, trying to keep up with Broad City and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (this last episode was especially funny: "he's like a sexy Italian fly and you're a meatball in an alley") and trying to finally push through the final few episodes of Grace & Frankie, although we probably won't be watching the 2nd season. It's just never as good as it could (and should) be, considering everyone who's involved.
I got round to seeing BvS: DoJ.
My God. I knew it would be bad, but, really, I cannot believe what a tiresome, infuritating, insufferable pile of shit this was.
WTF was that scene where Amy Adams was in the bath FOR NO REASON, is this 1990? And by all means, show us Bruce Wayne's parents being murdered UHGAIN, you know, it's not like this film is long enough. And really, "OMG, my mum is called Martha too, let's be BFFs", Really?? REALLY???? And what on earth was Jesse Eisenberg doing? What was that? It was excruciatingly painful, every time he was on screen my whole body was convulsing in embarrassment for him. There were a few genuinely interesting ideas...that went nowhere!!?! Then the big fight with that Balrog/Orc thing was just boring, full stop. Argh, the whole thing made me so angry. Huge waste of time and money. I can't think of a film I ever hated so much.
On the plus side, Ben Affleck was pretty good. And hot damn, he looked fiiiiiiiiiine.