Variety brings word that The Boss Baby has beaten both Beauty and the Beast and Ghost in the Shell to bag the most box office bucks this weekend: $49 million. That’s bully for stars Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, and Miles Christopher Bakshi, but bad news for the boneheads behind box-office bomb Ghost in the Shell, who bought the rights to a beloved Japanese book and film but blundered badly by casting bleach-blond Scarlett Johansson in a role that some said belonged by rights to an Asian actress. Bottom line on the resulting brouhaha and the bad buzz it brought by the bucketful: $19 million domestic.
Despite bringing home the bacon, The Boss Baby was something of a critical bête noire, which bewildered Fox head of domestic distribution Chris Aronson. Bypassing the customary back-slapping, the boss beseeched Variety to break it down for him. “You wonder why do audiences like [The Boss Baby] so much and the reviewers don’t?” he bemoaned. Meanwhile, Beauty and the Beast brought Disney a bountiful $48 million, which, on top of the beaucoup bucks it has already bundled up globally, means the film may be bound for the billion-dollar club.
Paramount faced the bad news about Ghost in the Shell bravely, but the business, already badly burned by Ben-Hur’s box office bustout, must be in something of a budgetary bind. Besides that, by many accounts things have basically been bedlam since Brad Grey bowed out. Perhaps the studio is betting that Baywatch will bring it back into the black. Otherwise, it won’t be long before bonuses at the blemished company bottom out. They’d better bring the boat around before long though, because next weekend brings a crush of new competition: Colossal, Cezanne and I, and The Case for Christ are coming to cinemas.
