Beauty of a Weekend Box Office

To nobody's surprise, the faithful redo of a well-loved animated feature came in #1:

THE THREE-DAY GROSSES

1.) Beauty And The Beast (Disney), 4,210 theaters / $63.79M Fri. (includes $16.3M in previews) /$62.7M Sat/$43.5M Sun/ 3-day: $170M /Wk 1 [Disney estimate]

(Industry estimated for Beauty and the Beast:$64.1M Fri. (includes $16.3M in previews) /$62.8M Sat/$47.1M Sun/ 3-day: $174M /Wk 1 [industry estimate]

2.) Kong: Skull Island (20th/Leg), 3,846 theaters (0) / $7.3M Fri. /$12.3M Sat/$9.2M Sun/ 3-day: $28.9M (-53%)/Total: $110.1M/Wk 2

3.) Logan (Fox), 3,687 theaters (-384)/ $4.7M Fri. /$7.8M Sat/$5M Sun/ 3-day: $17.5M (-54%)/Total: $184M/Wk 3

4.) Get Out (UNI), 2,979 theaters (-164) / $3.78M Fri. /$5.9M Sat/$3.52M Sun/ 3-day: $13.2M (-36%)/Total: $133.1M/Wk 4

5.) The Shack (LG), 2,825 theaters (-63) / $1.6M Fri. /$2.6M Sat/$1.9M Sun/ 3-day: $6.1M (-39%) /Total: $42.6M/Wk 3

6). The LEGO Batman Movie (WB), 2,735 theaters (-568) / $1.2M Fri./$2.06M Sat/$1.4M Sun/ 3-day: $4.7M (-38%) / Total: $167.4M/Wk 6

7.) The Belko Experiment (BHT/ORN), 1,341 theaters / $1.5M Fri. (includes $306K in previews) /$1.57M Sat/$981K Sun/ 3-day: $4.07M /Wk 1

8.) Hidden Figures (FOX), 1,162 theaters (-259)/ $390K Fri. /$715k Sat/$395K Sun 3-day: $1.5M (-46%) / Total: $165.6M / Wk 13

9.) John Wick: Chapter 2(LGF), 1,065 theaters (-966) / $304K Fri. / $546K Sat/$350K Sun/3-day: $1.2M (-60%) / Total:$89.8M / Wk 6

10.) Before I Fall (OR), 1,551 theaters (-795) / $313K Fri. /$436K Sat/$284K Sun/ 3-day: $1M (-67%)/Total: $11.2M/Wk 3

11.) Lion (TWC) 621 theaters (-339)/$180K /$355K Sat/$249K Sun/3-day: $784K (-36%)/Total: $50M/Wk 17

Overseas, Beauty and the Beast opened in 43 foreign markets and came in #1 in most of them, with a grand total of $350 million in its first weekend of release. No doubt there will be much back-slapping among execs in Burbank tonight, the Diz Co. finds more gold in them thar vaults.

As stated elsewhere, a hard-working animation crew performed most of the heavy lifting for this picture more than a quarter century ago, and now it's on to the next live-action redo ... though at some point the vault will be bare ... and the boys and girls at Disney will have to figure out a new strategy for filling up their movie slate.