In most of these Weekend Box Office Reports, it’s clear who the victor will be. Even when the early estimates are a little off and the numbers shift between now and Monday, the basic layout of the top 10 is generally pretty accurate. But this week is a real race and the top two films are neck and neck, and we won’t know who will actually win this thing until tomorrow. But right now, early estimates have Melissa McCarthy’s new comedy The Boss barely edging out Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice by less than $50,000. That’s crazy and, whether it actually claims the top spot tomorrow or not, very bad for Batman v Superman.

FilmWeekendPer Screen
1The Boss$23,480,000$6,747$23,480,00
2Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice$23,435,000 (-54.3)$5,713$296,685,000
3Zootopia$14,353,000 (-25.7)$4,168$296,012,000
4My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2$6,420,000 (-42.8)$2,121$46,752,321
5Hardcore Henry$5,096,000
$1,690$5,096,000
6Miracles From Heaven$4,844,000 (-33.2)$1,741$53,850,000
7God’s Not Dead 2$4,051,000 (-46.9)$1,721$13,835,000
8Allegiant$3,600,000 (-37.5)$1,438$61,829,000
910 Cloverfield Lane$3,000,000 (-34.3)$1,591$67,975,000
10Eye in the Sky$2,829,375 (-28.6)$2,598$10,405,000

 

Let’s star with The Boss, which opened with $23 million — a fairly average number for a Melissa McCarthy film. Depending on release date and reviews, her movies have opened as high as $39 million (The Heat) and as low as $21 million (Tammy), so this is both perfectly ordinary and evidence that her star power really isn’t waning in the slightest. It’s unlikely that The Boss will become a Bridesmaids or Identity Thief or even Spy-sized hit, but this is a strong start and it should be fine. If it pulls Tammy numbers and breaks $80 million, everyone will be perfectly happy. Since her films tend to have legs, that’s very likely.

But the fact that The Boss is giving Batman v Superman a race this tight when Zack Snyder’s superhero epic is only in its third weekend of release is pretty rough. Sure, it’s going to break $300 million any day now, but it plummeted another 54 percent and will surely drop even further next weekend. At this rate, the film is going to truly struggle to match Deadpool at the domestic box office and its chances of hitting $1 billion at the international box office continue to dwindle (it will be very close if it does). The film isn’t a bomb, but these numbers reflect that audiences are not buying what Warner Bros. is selling, and they’re not telling their friends to go see the movie. Yes, you should believe the stories of the studio re-tooling the tone of their upcoming DC movies.

In third place, Zootopia continued to work miracles, dropping only 25 percent for a weekend haul of $14 million and a $296 million total. At this rate, the film is showcasing legs strong enough to take it to $350 million or so. It’s not going to do Frozen numbers, but it doesn’t need to reach those heights. It’s a big hit that audiences actually like, surviving beyond the initial hype period and growing into a juggernaut.

In fourth place, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 took a sizable drop, but it should end up somewhere north of $60 million and it will be perfectly fine. This was never going to match the massive box office of the first film and this is entirely respectable. Slightly less respectable: the fifth place opening for Hardcore Henry, which opened to only $5 million despite a massive, omnipresent marketing campaign.

Meanwhile, the sixth and seventh slots offered a showdown of the faith-based movies, with Miracles From Heaven continuing to grow into a sleeper hit, while God’s Not Dead 2 looks like it’s going to start struggling from here on out. It certainly won’t reach the heights of the first movie.

In the final stretch, Allegiant continued to hammer nails into the Divergent series coffin and 10 Cloverfield Lane continued to crawl toward $70 million, which is a huge victory for a film that was made on a such a small budget.

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