Who's surprised that Disney's live-action retelling of The Jungle Book stacked a huge amount of cash at the box office in its opening weekend? The movie falls right into that sweet spot of appealing to children, but also their parents and even childless adults who are nostalgic for the animated version from their own childhoods. In fact, it was people aged 18 to 24 who reportedly bought most of the tickets.
Factor in the way that Disney was able to absolutely pack the cast with star power, including voice (and singing) work from Bill Murray (Baloo), Idris Elba (Shere Khan), Lupita Nyong'o (Raksha), Ben Kingsley (Bagheera) Scarlett Johansson (Kaa), Christopher Walken (King Louie) and even the late Garry Shandling (Ikki), and the movie was good for the second best April opening of all time, taking in $103.6 million domestically, USA Todayreported. The only movie to open bigger in April was Furious 7, which opened to $147.1 million in 2015.
Even with Benedict Cumberbatch, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Andy Serkis on board, it's going to be really difficult for Warner Bros.'s own version, now titled simply Jungle Book (after it was changed from Jungle Book Origins) to compete with that kind of success when it opens up in October of 2018.
Barber Shop: The Next Cut opened in second place with $20.2 million in its first weekend. The Boss, with Melissa McCarthy, dropped to third place in its second weekend after knocking Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice out of the top spot last week. Batman v Superman dipped to fourth place, adding $9 million to its domestic total, which now sits at $310 million stateside and has earned more than $827 million worldwide.
