The Jungle Book hit theaters this weekend and it’s been almost all of what anybody wanted to see, even going so far as to almost set a box office record for openers in April in the process!
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Despite giving the film a solid 8.1 rating on Douban.com and first-rate critical reviews, Chinese audience were still not as expressive they have been with Disney’s Zootopia, which amassed a par excellence 9.3 Douban rating.
Barbershop: The Next Cut, the third comedy in the Barbershop franchise, made its debut in second place with $20.2 million.
In Europe, “Jungle Book” out performed “Maleficent” by 34 percent in its opening weekend, and 82 percent stronger than “Cinderella”.
Critics and audiences embraced the entirely CGI jungle world filled with intricate animals such as the bear Baloo (Bill Murray) and evil tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba).
Disney’s remake of The Jungle Book has trounced the competition at the United States box office, taking $103.6m (£73m) in its first weekend.
That ranks as the second biggest April opening in history, behind only “Furious 7’s” $147.2 million launch. Developed over a budget of $29 million, it has now pooled in $44 million worldwide. The third movie in the series after 2002’s Barbershop and 2004’s Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Malcolm D Lee’s film centres once again on a South Side Chicago hairdressers, this time under threat from trigger-happy gangs who have begun to frequent the area. In India, where the film is set, it collected $20.1 million. Second weekend figures of the film are just unbelievable. Still, it was enough to push past last weekend’s number one The Boss which fell more than 55% to add $10 million to its now $40 million domestic total.
“The Jungle Book” also brought in an impressive $240 million globally this weekend. It cost just north of $30 million to produce.
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Local mystery-thriller Lost in White, starring Hong Kong’s Tony Leung Ka-fai, was largely snowed snowed out, earning $4.2 million from Friday to Sunday.
