Melissa McCarthy's 'The Boss,' Squeezes Ahead of 'Batman v Superman' at the Weekend Box Office

By Gregg Kilday, The Hollywood Reporter

Melissa McCarthy, squaring off against both Batman and Superman over the weekend, scored a narrow victory, as the raucous comedian’s new feature The Boss claimed the top spot at the North American box office in a virtual photo finish with an estimated $23.48 million, just a few dollars above Batman v Superman’s weekend gross of $23.44 million. The superhero movie fell 54 percent in its third weekend as its total domestic tally rose to $296.7 million.

Hardcore Henry, the first-person POV action movie from STX Entertainment, the weekend’s other new wide release, didn’t shoot up the box office, debuting at just $5.1 million for a fifth place showing from 3,015 locations.

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The Boss, released by Universal in 3,480 locations, had to overcome withering reviews — its approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes was just 18 percent — and a C+ rating from Cinemascore, along the way. But, McCarthy could nevertheless claim her third number one opening, following 2013’s Identity Thief and last summer’s Spy.

Female moviegoers flocked to The Boss. Its audience was 67 percent female, with 51 percent under age 35, and 49 percent 35 and older, the studio reported. Seventy-nine percent cited McCarthy as the main reason they sought out the movie. “We love the fact that Melissa is a genuine movie star, people love her comedies and she opens at number one,” said Nicholas Carpou, Universal’s domestic distribution president. “The Boss is a female-driven, R-rated raunchy comedy that delivers, and there hasn’t been one for awhile.”

Written by McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone with their Groundlings collaborator Steve Mallory, and directed by Falcone, The Boss, which was produced for $29 million, is coming in on the low-end for one McCarthy’s trade-mark R-rated raucous comedies. Its performing along the lines of 2014’s Tammy, also directed by Falcone, which opened to $21.6 million and went on to gross $84.5 million domestically and $100.5 million worldwide. A Wednesday opener, Tammy grossed $33.5 million in it first five days.

In The Boss, McCarthy, drawing on a character she created at The Groundings, plays a titan of industry, who, after a stint in prison, has to rebuild her life and empire. Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage and Kathy Bates also star. The comedy was produced by McCarthy and Falcone’s On the Day production company along with Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy’s Gary Sanchez Productions.

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The Boss and Batman v Superman, playing in 4,102 locations, actually see-sawed back and forth during the course of the weekend. Boss took Friday with $8.1 million, including $985,000 from Thursday night previews, versus BvS’s $6.05 million, but then BvS was stronger on Saturday with $10.7 million versus Boss’ $9.7 million. BvS is expected to cross the $300 million domestically by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

Internationally, BvS took in $34 million from 67 markets to bring its international cume to $486.8 million and its worldwide total to $783.5 million.

Henry, from director Ilya Naishuller, drew its inspiration from first person shooter video games, and it appears that it was younger videogamers, targeted by the studio, who showed up to support the movie. Its audience was heavily male, 76 percent, and young, with 67 percent in the 17-34 age group. While STX acquired the movie for $10 million at the Toronto Film Festival, the studio said that its foreign sales limited its exposure to $2 million.

In other box-office action, Disney’s animated Zootopia, in its ninth weekend, rang in in third place with an additional $14.4 million, bringing its domestic gross to $296 million and its worldwide number to $852.5 million. It now ranks as the fifth highest-grossing original animated release of all time and the eleventh highest-grossing animated movie ever and is only $5 million shy of surpassing Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out.

In fourth place, Universal’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 pulled in $6.4 million in it third weekend to bring it domestic gross to $46.7 million.

Faith-based movies occupied the sixth and seventh slots, with Sony’s Miracles from Heaven attracting $4.8 million for $53.9 million domestic purse, and Pure Flix’s God’s Not Dead 2 taking $4.3 million for a $14.1 million cume.