'Boss Baby' unseats 'Beauty and the Beast' in surprise box office tussle

"The Boss Baby" knocked Walt Disney Co.'s "Beauty and the Beast" from the top of the North American box office this weekend, resulting in a surprise win for the new animated release that features Alec Baldwin.

The film, from Comcast Corp.'s DreamWorks Animation and 21st Century Fox Inc., opened with estimated sales of $49 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, researcher ComScore Inc. said Sunday in an emailed statement. That beat the $32 million in ticket sales estimated by BoxOfficePro.com. "Beauty and the Beast" -- a live-action adaptation of an animated classic -- came in second with $47.5 million, close to the $47.6 million expected by BoxOfficePro.com.

The better-than-anticipated opening for "Boss Baby" sets the film on a path to potentially collect the estimated $400 million it needs from global ticket sales just to break even. On average, DreamWorks films cost as much as $135 million to make and $65 million to market, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

In the animated feature, Baldwin provides the voice of a business-minded baby who teams up with his 7-year-old brother to thwart the evil chief executive officer of a puppy company. The film, which also features the voices of Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow, scored a 46 percent favorable rating on RottenTomatoes.com.

"This concept really worked: Having this baby be an evil corporate CEO-type lends for a lot of humor, and they have the right voice actor to do it," Gitesh Pandya, chief executive officer of the Boxofficeguru website.

Baldwin has raised his profile in recent months satirizing President Donald Trump during impersonation sketches on television's "Saturday Night Live." That may have helped draw viewers to the film, Pandya said.

Also, the movie was the first PG-rated animated film in almost two months, according to ComScore, attracting parents of younger children who wanted to avoid the violence of current releases "Power Rangers" and "Kong: Skull Island," Pandya said.

"Beauty and the Beast" is approaching $400 million in North American sales since the film collected $174.8 million in its debut three weekends ago. Disney has been on a run the past two years, scoring with live-action remakes from its library like "Beauty and the Beast," new "Star Wars" and Marvel adventures and fresh animated features including "Zootopia."

Scarlett Johansson stars in the weekend's other new release, "Ghost in the Shell," a live-action feature from Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures that's based on a Japanese anime hit. Johansson plays Major, a woman who's saved from a terrible crash and cyber-enhanced to battle dangerous criminals.

Coming in third, the movie collected $19 million from weekend sales, less than Hollywood Stock Exchange's estimate of $28.5 million. The film, which scored a 45 percent favorable rating at RottenTomatoes, endured some controversy earlier this year for failing to cast a Japanese actor in the lead role.

"Power Rangers" took in $14.5 million during its second week while "Kong" brought in $8.8 million.