‘Jungle Book’ triumphs, as ‘Keanu’ stumbles

LOS ANGELES

“The Jungle Book” steamrolled over a trio of box office lightweights, racking up $42.4 million to lead tickets sales for the third consecutive weekend. Disney’s live action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli stories has made $252.1 million since opening last month. It should have no trouble becoming the fourth film this year to cross $300 million domestically, joining “Deadpool,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and “Zootopia.” 

It’s heady company. Just don’t look for this weekend’s new releases to join those ranks. “Keanu,” an action-comedy sendup from Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, nabbed third place with $9.3 million across 2,658 screens. The weak result is alleviated somewhat by the fact that the Warner Bros./ New Line release cost a meagre $15 million to produce. 

Open Road’s “Mother’s Day,” an ensemble romantic comedy with Julia Roberts, Jennifer Anniston, and Jason Sudekis, collapsed at the multiplexes, eking out $8.3 million across 3,035 locations to finish in fourth. That could spell the end for director Gary Marshall’s lucrative “throw a bunch of stars at a holiday” franchise that also encompassed “Valentine’s Day” and “New Year’s Eve.” “Arbor Day” is unlikely to score a greenlight now. 

And Focus Features’ “Ratchet and Clank” struggled to leave an impression. The adaptation of the video game series about a fugitive robot and a cat-like alien, only managed to pull in $4.8 million from 2,891 locations, marking it as D.O.A. 

Analysts and box office watchers weren’t expecting a lot from this crop, but the results were even worse than expected. Going into the weekend, tracking services had both “Mother’s Day” and “Keanu” debuting to north of $10 million. 

In its second weekend, Universal’s “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” dropped 52% to $9.4 million for a second place finish. With $33.9 million in the bank, this $115 million production is headed to write-down territory. “Barbarshop: The Next Cut” rounded out the top five, earning $6.1 million and bringing the Warner Bros. and MGM comedy sequel’s domestic total to $44.7 million. 

Of course, the whole weekend is really just a throat clearing for “Captain America: Civil War,” which barrels into theaters on May 6. The superhero sequel could pull in as much as $200 million to score one of the biggest openings in history.