After two solid weeks at the top of the box office, "Beauty and the Beast" reigns supreme no more. The live-action remake of the classic Disney animated film was bested by a modern cartoon from Dreamworks' Animation arm. The Alec Baldwin-starring "The Boss Baby" narrowly took the top spot, earning $49 million over the weekend.
Film earned big despite cool reviews
When "Boss Baby" was first announced in 2014, public perception was skeptical, particularly since the release date was bumped three times and voice talent cycling in and out of the film.
However, with Baldwin's career resurgence as SNL's Donald Trump character, interest around the movie increased closer to the release date.
Although critics were unimpressed with the movie, the popularity of Baldwin seemed to be enough to drive people to theaters over the weekend, earning "The Boss Baby" enough to take the top box office spot away from "Beauty and the Beast" after two weeks in first place.
Overall, "The Boss Baby" has a 49% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an even Metacritic score of 50 out of 100, (based on the reviews of 29 professional critics).
'Ghost in the Shell' and 'Power Rangers' were both poor weekend performers
Unlike "The Boss Baby," which earned double what experts predicted, the rest of the weekend's top ten did not fare as well.
Amid claims of "whitewashing," the live-action adaptation of Japanese anime "Ghost in the Shell" performed much more poorly than expected over the course of the weekend. The movie, starring Scarlett Johansson as Major, was anticipated to take in at least $30 million on Sunday, but instead earned a mere $19 million.
Johansson's previous solo movie, "Lucy" debuted in top spot back in 2014," a total of $463 million at the box office over the course of its international run.
"Ghost in the Shell" is now predicted to make only a fraction of that total.
The weekend's fourth-ranked movie, "Power Rangers" took in only $14.5 million. During its opening weekend at the end of March, it earned more than $40 million dollars, showing a drop in the audience by more than 64 percent.
The big releases to watch out for next week includes Morgan Freeman's "Going in Style" and the latest release in the "Smurfs" franchise, "Smurfs: The Lost Village".
