As expected, last week’s massive premiere for Beauty and the Beast was just the beginning for Disney’s live-action adaptation of the beloved animated feature, and the film continued its record-setting ways with another huge weekend at the top of the box-office report.
The film added another $88.3 million to its considerable haul in U.S. theaters, giving it the fourth highest-grossing second weekend of all time. It also passed Logan to become the highest-grossing film of 2017 both domestically and worldwide.
Now one of the fastest films ever to cross the $300 million mark domestically and the $600 million mark worldwide, Beauty and the Beast didn’t have much trouble fending off a strong debut from Power Rangers, which enjoyed a respectable, $40.5 million premiere to go along with positive buzz from audiences.
| # | Title | Weekend | U.S. Total | Worldwide Total |
| 1. | Beauty and the Beast | $88.3M | $316.9M | $690.2M |
| 2. | Power Rangers | $40.5M | $40.5M | $59.2M |
| 3. | Kong: Skull Island | $14.4M | $133.5M | $392.1M |
| 4. | Life | $12.6M | $12.6M | $28.7M |
| 5. | Logan | $10.1M | $201.4M | $565.4M |
| 6. | Get Out | $8.6M | $147.4M | $154.4M |
| 7. | Chips | $7.6M | $7.6M | $9.5M |
| 8. | The Shack | $3.7M | $49M | $49.8M |
| 9. | The Lego Batman Movie | $1.9M | $170.8M | $292.5M |
| 10. | The Belko Experiment | $1.8M | $7.5M | $7.5M |
While Beauty and the Beast is on the sort of roll that will likely see more than a few additional box-office records get broken before the film leaves theaters, Power Rangers is also noteworthy for the dissonance between professional critics’ reviews of the film and the audience response to it. The live-action film based on the hit ’90s television franchise earned an impressive “A” grade on CinemaScore, which is generated by audience reviews upon leaving the theater, while the film earned a mere 46-percent positive review from RottenTomatoes, an aggregator of professional movie reviews.
It will be interesting to see whether Power Rangers can benefit from those audience reviews enough to maintain momentum and cover its $100 million price tag.
The only other new releases to crack the weekend’s top ten films were the sci-fi thriller Life and the raunchy comedy Chips, and both films underwhelmed — both critically and commercially. Although Life received somewhat positive reviews from professional critics, both films were shunned by audiences and their final numbers fall on the low end of box-office experts’ predictions.
This upcoming weekend will almost certainly extend the reign of Beauty and the Beast, as the highest-profile release is sci-fi action adaptation Ghost in the Shell, which could indeed do well, but probably not well enough to beat Disney’s latest box-office juggernaut. Along with Ghost in the Shell, this weekend’s new releases include the animated feature The Boss Baby, the World War II drama The Zookeeper’s Wife, and the low-profile horror film The Blackcoat’s Daughter.
