Long Range Forecast: ‘The Circle,’ ‘How to Be a Latin Lover,’ & ‘Sleight’ Set to Close Out April Box Office

This week’s Long Range Forecast welcomes the final releases before the official summer season begins. April 28 is currently slated to see the debuts of The CircleHow to Be a Latin Lover, and Sleight.

Among the three, The Circle currently looks to have the best chance of opening the highest thanks to its built-in audience (fans of Dave Eggers’ book), encouraging social media activity at this stage, and star power (Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, and Star Wars‘ John Boyega). Latin Lover is looking to counter-program with its appeal to Latino audiences, while Sleight will aim for teens and young twenty-somethings — an audience it may face up an uphill battle finding against The Circle.

This Week’s Changes & Other Additions

Notable among this week’s changes to films we’re publicly tracking:

  • Beauty and the Beast continues to dominate social media, traditional tracking, and presales reports. We’ve lowered our domestic total forecast to more accurately reflect potential front-loading given the immense buzz behind the film. The film’s reviews will still be key to its long term outlook, though.
  • Buzz for The Belko Experiment has stalled somewhat, and will likely have a hard time breaking out so soon after the wildly successful Get Out.
  • Slamma Jamma and Phoenix Forgotten have been added to the wide release slate, but we are not currently offering public forecasts given their limited distributor histories.
  • The Promise has been added to the wide release slate, but we currently expect a low profile run.

Check out our forecasts for these and other upcoming films in the table below.

Release Date Title 3-Day Wide Opening % Chg from Last Week Domestic Total % Chg from Last Week Location Count Distributor
3/10/2017 Kong: Skull Island $40,000,000 $113,000,000 3,800 Warner Bros.
3/17/2017 Beauty and the Beast (2017) $144,000,000 $420,000,000 -11% 4,000 Disney
3/17/2017 The Belko Experiment $5,000,000 -29% $10,500,000 -34% 1,650 High Top Releasing
3/24/2017 CHiPS $16,000,000 $53,000,000 Warner Bros.
3/24/2017 Life (2017) $15,000,000 $50,000,000 Sony / Columbia
3/24/2017 Power Rangers $38,000,000 $110,000,000 Lionsgate
3/24/2017 Slamma Jamma n/a NEW n/a NEW River Rain
3/31/2017 The Boss Baby $24,000,000 $83,000,000 Fox / DreamWorks Animation
3/31/2017 Ghost in the Shell (2017) $40,000,000 $105,000,000 Paramount / DreamWorks
3/31/2017 Step Sisters n/a n/a Broad Green Pictures
3/31/2017 The Zookeeper’s Wife $5,000,000 $19,000,000 Focus Features
4/7/2017 The Case for Christ $3,500,000 $14,000,000 Pure Flix
4/7/2017 Going In Style (2017) $12,500,000 $49,000,000 Warner Bros. / New Line
4/7/2017 Smurfs: The Lost Village $21,500,000 $78,500,000 Sony / Columbia
4/14/2017 The Fate of the Furious $110,000,000 $264,000,000 Universal
4/14/2017 Spark $3,000,000 $7,500,000 Open Road
4/21/2017 Born in China $5,500,000 $19,000,000 Disneynature
4/21/2017 Free Fire $8,000,000 $24,000,000 A24
4/21/2017 LEAP! $6,000,000 $19,000,000 The Weinstein Company
4/21/2017 Phoenix Forgotten n/a NEW n/a NEW Cinelou Films
4/21/2017 The Promise $2,250,000 NEW $4,000,000 NEW Open Road Films
4/21/2017 Unforgettable $10,000,000 $23,500,000 Warner Bros.
4/28/2017 The Circle $13,000,000 NEW $40,000,000 NEW STX Entertainment
4/28/2017 How to Be a Latin Lover $6,500,000 NEW $23,000,000 NEW Lionsgate
4/28/2017 Sleight $5,000,000 NEW $11,000,000 NEW BH Tilt

Shawn Robbins, Alex Edghill, and Jesse Rifkin contributed to this report.