'The Boss Baby' narrowly beats 'Beauty and the Beast' again, while 'Smurfs' gets lost

Of the three new releases to make it into the week’s top ten films, none of them had particularly positive debuts.

Sony Pictures Animation’s franchise sequel Smurfs: The Lost Village eked out an unfortunate $14 million premiere, giving it the lowest opening weekend of the franchise so far. The film’s so-so reviews probably won’t help, but if there’s one thing that seems certain these days, it’s that reviews don’t affect animated and family-friendly features to the same degree that they do live-action, adult fare.

Of the other two new releases, ensemble comedy Going In Style managed a fourth-place opening with its star-studded cast that teams Morgan Freeman with Michael Caine, Alan Arkin, and Christopher Lloyd. Unlike with Smurfs, this film’s poor reviews — both from professional critics and general audiences — will probably keep the movie from becoming a surprise hit (although it might end up covering its$25 million budget in the long run).

Religious-themed drama The Case For Christ squeaked into the top ten with a $3.9 million opening weekend that actually fell under studio predictions for the film, which was expected to follow the trend of low-budget, faith-based films that bring in Christian movie audiences in droves. The film did better than most of its ilk with professional critics, and it received the usual, overwhelmingly positive reviews from the audiences that these films typically appeal to.

Meanwhile, both Ghost in the Shell and Power Rangers continued their disappointing runs, with Ghost in the Shell looking as if it will take the much bigger loss of the two thanks to a dismal showing in U.S. theaters so far.

As expected, the quirky monster movie Colossal didn’t factor into the weekend’s top movies, but only because it debuted in just four theaters. Still, the film’s $31,452 per-theater average is promising, and suggests that it could indeed receive a wider release down the road.

This week’s biggest release — and the absolutely certain top film next week — is Universal Pictures’ action sequel The Fate of the Furious, which is already expected to crush a long list of records for the year, the franchise, and the industry when it hits theaters. The studio’s Fast and the Furious franchise is already one of the highest-grossing film series of all time, and the eighth installment is expected to move it even higher in that list of Hollywood’s biggest cinematic brands.

The only other major release this week is The Lost City of Z, director James Gray’s adaptation of David Grann’s best-selling novel of the same name. the film casts Charlie Hunnam as British explorer Percy Fawcett, and received some positive critical buzz in recent months.

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