Weekend Box Office: The Jungle Book Swings To Number One With More Than The Bare Necessities

The Jungle Book delivered the third opening of 2016 above $100 million this weekend, and it's only mid-April! Is that important? Yeah, it is.

The first movie to break the triple digit line was the first Raimi Spider-man in 2002. Since then fewer than 40 movies have achieved the feat, with usually only 2 to 3 movies per year hitting that mark.

Last year was a boom year with six movies cracking $100 million on opening weekend, but as usual most of those were summer or holiday debuts. The first came in April with Furious 7. This year we're in April and there are already three on the books. Looking down the list of 2016 releases, this may be the year that more than ten movies break triple digit debuts.

The Jungle Book only narrowly arrived at that level, hitting number one with a hypnotizing $103 million. That's a nice turn around for director Jon Favreau who stumbled slightly when his post-Iron Man era Cowboys & Aliens failed to deliver at the box office.

Barbershop: The Next Cut claimed a distant second place with $20 million. That doesn't sound too bad until you realize that's a little less than the original Barbershop banked back in 2002 when ticket prices were 60% what they are now. Still, it was enough to push past last weekend's number one The Boss which fell more than 55% to add $10 million to its now $40 million domestic total.

The third newcomer this weekend, Kevin Costner's Criminal, slumped in with $5 million for a number 6 start. That's Costner's lowest wide-release opening since Rumor Has It in 2005 and second lowest since 1997's The Postman two titles anyone would hope a movie could outperform.

For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below: