Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Box office hits and misses: Batman V. Superman gets bumped by The Boss

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
It didn’t take long for the reign of much-maligned superhero drama Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice to come to an end. After just two weeks atop the box-office rankings, director Zack Snyder’s angsty, critically panned sequel to Man of Steel was nudged down to second place by The Boss, Melissa McCarthy’s latest comedy.

It’s estimated that The Boss finished just ahead of Batman V. Superman when all the receipts were finally tallied, earning somewhere around $50,000 more than the superhero film to take the top spot for the weekend. Meanwhile, the week-to-week drop for Batman V. Superman was another big one, with the film down 54 percent from the previous weekend.

It’s worth noting that both The Boss and Batman V. Superman have fallen on the wrong side of professional critics’ appraisals in eking out their respective box-office achievements, with Batman V. Superman expected to turn a modest profit for studio Warner Bros. Pictures when all is said and done — though far less than would be expected for a film featuring two of the most popular comic-book characters of all time. Given the relatively low production costs for The Boss, the “R”-rated comedy should have no problem turning a tidy profit for Universal Pictures in spite of poor reviews.

# Title Weekend U.S. Total Worldwide Total
1. The Boss $23.5M $23.5M $24.5M
2. Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice $23.4M $296.7M $783.5M
3. Zootopia $14.3 $296M $852.5M
4. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 $6.4M $46.7M $70.8M
5. Hardcore Henry $5.1M $5.1M $7.2M
6. Miracles From Heaven $4.8M $53.8M $56.9M
7. God’s Not Dead 2 $4.3M $14.1M $14.1M
8. The Divergent Series: Allegiant $3.6M $61.8M $141.4M
9. 10 Cloverfield Lane $3M $68M $94M
10. Eye in the Sky $2.8M $10.4M $10.4M

In third place, Disney’s animated feature Zootopia continued to stay strong at theaters, and it looks like it will join Batman V. Superman in crossing the $300 million mark at U.S. theaters next weekend. Deadpool was the first movie to hit that mark this year, and that film is now up to $358.4 million domestically as of this weekend. Only time will tell how far the three films will go, but with some big movies on the way in coming weeks, the clock is ticking.

The only other new release to make it into the top ten films for the weekend was Hardcore Henry, the first-person perspective action movie that promised a fresh spin on the cinematic experience. Neither critics nor general audiences seemed to be won over by seeing the adventure unfold through the eyes of the film’s protagonist, and the film fell short of predictions with just $5.1 million for the weekend. It will likely need a few strong weekends in order to avoid being labeled a failed experiment, so we’ll have to wait and see how word of mouth affects the film.

Interestingly, Star Wars: The Force Awakens managed to add another $369,000 to its U.S. gross over the weekend despite being released to the home-entertainment market a few days earlier. The blockbuster sequel was screened in 346 theaters over the weekend, averaging out to over $1,000 per theater despite the film being available on Blu-ray and digitally. The Force Awakens has now earned $935.5 million in U.S. theaters as the current domestic record holder, and also sits in third place on the all-time worldwide box office rankings behind Avatar and Titanic.

Related Offer: See here to pre-order your copy of Batman V Superman on DVD and Blu-ray

Next weekend features the release of Disney’s live-action remake of The Jungle Book, as well as the comedy sequel Barbershop: The Next Cut, which are both expected to do well. It’s looking increasingly likely that Batman V. Superman continues its slide now that it’s faced with some tougher competition — and a string of even bigger films hitting theaters in the weeks to come.

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
The best animated movies on Netflix right now
A cat points a bat at another cat in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

While Nimona has been the big Netflix original animated film of the summer, it's far from the only addition to the lineup. Netflix is making sure that animation fans are well served in August with the first two Despicable Me movies, Bee Movie, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. However, Netflix's biggest recent addition is one of 2022's biggest animated hits: DreamWorks' Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

Netflix's deals with Sony Pictures Animation, DreamWorks Animation, and Universal Pictures have given it a powerhouse library of animated films. And that's before we even get into Netflix's impressive originals like The Sea Beast. To help you keep track of what's new and what you can stream right now, we've updated our list of the best animated movies on Netflix.

Read more
From Barbarella to Howard the Duck: the 7 cheesiest sci-fi movies ever
Howard the Duck in "Howard the Duck."

The science-fiction genre has a vast smorgasbord of cheesy films stretching way back to the early days of cinema. Such pictures are known for their weird stories, unrealistic dialogue, low-budget productions, and exaggerated acting.

While many of these films have been panned by critics and audiences alike, some of them have garnered success for being "so bad, they're good." Whether or not they have been held up by a dedicated fan base, these seven movies stand out as the cream of the cheesy sci-fi crop.
Flash Gordon (1980)

Read more
10 best Batman stories ever, ranked
Batman Year One cover

Bounding from rooftop to rooftop, the Dark Knight never misses his mark. He operates like a well-oiled machine tracking bad guys, beating them to a bloody pulp, and throwing them in the slammer - or Arkham Asylum should they be anyone of Gotham's notable supervillains. As the brainchild of Bob Kane and Bill Finger, an artist and writer duo, Batman has been pounding the pavement of Gotham ever since his debut in Detective Comics in 1939. He's undergone a number of changes since his original conception ultimately becoming the brooding powerhouse we know today.

Most understand the basic tenants of Batman these days. His parents were murdered before his young eyes leading him down this path of personal vindication and pursuit of justice. Batman, in most iterations, never resorts to killing -- the one crime that separates his outlaw vigilante operations from the real criminals. Of course, it wasn't always that way. In Batman's earliest days, he had no qualms about ending the lives of baddies on the streets. Even now, some stories and films like Tim Burton's gothic take on the character depict him looking on with cold and uncaring glares as criminals meet their end. Regardless, Batman is mostly a well-established hero simply seeking justice and there are countless stories of the Caped Crusader. Let's take a look at the best among them.
10. Hush

Read more