LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Three new movie releases failed to best Disney's The Jungle Book, which trounced the competition at the US box office during its third weekend with US$42.4 million (S$56.99 million), industry estimates showed Sunday.
With a domestic total of US$252 million and a global take of more than US$685 million, the live-action Jungle Book continues Disney's hugely successful streak of retelling classic stories, using computer wizardry to bring to life the characters from Rudyard Kipling's tales about a boy named Mowgli who is raised by animals.
Starring newcomer Neel Sethi as Mowgli, Hollywood heavyweights Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley and Idris Elba provide the voices of Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther and Shere Khan the tiger.
Universal's spin on Snow White, The Huntsman: Winter's War, stayed at number two for a second disappointing week with only US$9.4 million, according to estimates from industry tracker Exhibitor Relations.
A prequel to the 2012 film Snow White and the Huntsman, it stars Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain. It is set before the events of Snow White, and follows the Huntsman, played by Hemsworth, who teams up with his co-stars against the wicked witch.
Debuting just behind in third place with US$9.35 million, the Warner Bros comedy Keanu, directed by Peter Atencio, stars comic duo Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele in their first big-screen appearance together, pretending to be gangsters while trying to rescue a pet kitten kidnapped by a drug dealer.
Another debut film, the critically panned Mother's Day, came fourth with US$8.3 million. The Open Road film stars Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, Jason Sudeikis and Kate Hudson in intertwining stories that follow three generations of women during the week before Mother's Day.
Barbershop: The Next Cut, the latest instalment in the Warner Bros. comedy franchise, came in fifth during its third weekend with US$6.1 million.
Featuring Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer, the movie centers around the personalities in a barbershop who try to stop the violence plaguing their south Chicago neighbourhood.
Rounding out the rest of the top 10 were: - Zootopia (US$5 million) - Ratchet & Clank (US$4.8 million) - The Boss (US$4.2 million) - Batman v Superman (US$3.8 million) - Criminal (US$1.3 million).
