As summer blockbuster-type movies keep pushing earlier and earlier into March and April it's only natural that the box office records for those months will also get pushed. This weekend the remake of Beauty and the Beast became the latest to claim one of those titles.
Beauty and the Beast cranked out $170 million for its debut weekend, just edging out last year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice highest March opening record of $166 million. The remake also nabbed several other less notable distinctions, including the highest opening for a Disney animated to mostly-live-action conversion and seventh highest domestic opening weekend ever (just passing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and its $169 million debut in 2011).
Spring Break brought with it plenty of audience attention to go around, and despite Beauty and the Beast's domination, most other movies only dropped by typical amounts. Kong: Skull Island managed to only slip around 50% under Beauty and the Beast's weight, cranking past the $100 million mark on its second weekend out, ending at $110 million.
Horror flick The Belko Project opened in seventh place with just $4 million, but that number isn't devastating against its modest $5 million production budget. Overall, not a bad start for a horror movie starring that sweet guy from The Newsroom (John Gallagher Jr.), that mean guy from Ghost (Tony Goldwyn) and Dr. Cox fromScrubs (John C. McGinley).
T2 Trainspotting and been indulging European fans of the original Trainspotting for over a month now, but it finally landed in small release stateside. The sequel opened in just 5 locations, but banked $36,000 per screen, second only this weekend to Beauty and the Beast's $40,000 per screen.
For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:
