Weekend Box Office Report: March 17-19, 2017

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Beauty and the box office Beast!

Disney brought the fairy tale BEAUTY AND THE BEAST to life this weekend and opened with a monstrous $170 million!

The musical romance from director Bill Condon (DREAMGIRLS, TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN) also collected $180 million from international crowds for a worldwide opening weekend of $350 million.

The update of Disney's own animated 1991 blockbuster set a new record for biggest March opening, defeating the $166 million start of last year's BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. It's also the best opening ever for a PG-rated release, and is already the second-highest grossing movie of 2017 behind LOGAN.

For star Emma Watson, Belle had an even better beginning than her previous high-profile role as Hermione Granger, which peaked with a $169 million opening for HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART II.

The ensemble fantasy cost a reported $160 million, and a majority of critics felt like welcome guests with 70% on Rotten Tomatoes (the JoBlo review is HERE).

KONG: SKULL ISLAND climbed down to second place with $28.5 million, dropping 52% from its first place opening last week as it had to make way for another hairy fella at the top.

The visit to the land of giant monsters (and precursor to a slobberknocker with Godzilla) now has a ten-day domestic total of $110.1 million, with a worldwide total of $259.3 million on a reported $185 million cost.

In third place, the R-rated LOGAN continued to demonstrate resilience with another $17.5 million for a domestic total of $184 million after three weekends, pushing past the $179.8 million domestic finish of X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE.

Hugh Jackman's futuristic final time around as everyone's favorite ferocious mutant has also passed $500 million worldwide.

Writer-director Jordan Peele's R-rated horror movie GET OUT was in fourth place with $13.2 million, bringing the low-budget thriller's domestic total to $133 million after a month in theaters. Religious melodrama THE SHACK followed in fifth with $6.1 million for a domestic total of $42.6 million, and THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE was in sixth with $4.7 million.

The new horror movie THE BELKO EXPERIMENT opened in seventh place with $4 million. The grim R-rated office nightmare scenario from writer-producer James Gunn only cost a reported $5 million (and launched on less than one-third the screens as BEAUTY AND THE BEAST), and received a 47% critical average on Rotten Tomatoes. The JoBlo review can be found HERE.

After that, HIDDEN FIGURES remains the only Oscar contender on the list in eighth place with $1.5 million, JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 loaded another $1.2 million for a worldwide total of $158 million, and the teen drama BEFORE I FALL hung on at the bottom with $1 million.

Outside the chart, the romance with FIFTY SHADES DARKER is over and LA LA LAND finally danced away after spending more than three months in the Top 10.

In limited release, director Danny Boyle's R-rated sequel T2 TRAINSPOTTING opened with a per-screen average of $36k. The 20-years-later follow-up, which cost a reported $18 million, has already rounded up $33.3 million in release overseas.

Next weekend has A-listers in space learning hard lessons about LIFE, while TV shows transform into movies with POWER RANGERS and CHIPS.

What is your favorite Disney fairy tale movie? VOTE HERE!