‘BABY’ CLINGS TO TOP
For the second straight weekend, the tie- wearing toddler of The Boss Baby nosed out Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at North American box offices, while the new Smurf movie came in a distant and disappointing third, according to industry estimates.
Baby, the animated tale about a cuteness competition pitting babies against pets, took in $ 26.3 million for the three- day weekend, Exhibitor Relations reported, bringing its two- week total to $ 89.4 million. Alec Baldwin voices the chief baby in the DreamWorks production, distributed by Fox.
Beauty showed continuing strength, netting $ 25 million in its fourth week out for an impressive North American total so far of $ 432.3 million. With its intricate production and rich musical score, the Disney film, starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, is the year’s highest- grossing film so far.
But Sony, which had been banking on the cuddly appeal of the blue munchkins in Smurfs: The Lost Village, faced disappointing numbers. The film’s $ 14 million opening weekend was “one of the worst starts in recent memory for an animated offering from a major Hollywood studio,” said the Hollywood Reporter website.
The original film in the series, The Smurfs, earned much of its $ 563.7 million gross on overseas ticket sales, and Sony appears to be hoping this film will follow form.