‘Boss Baby’ Edges Out ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Again at Friday Box Office

A weak batch of new releases has made this weekend’s box office another tight battle between DreamWorks Animation’s “The Boss Baby” and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” but signs point to “Boss Baby” once again edging out “Beauty” for another No. 1 weekend.

The good news is that the decision to make this “Smurfs” film fully animated has kept the production budget down to a reported $60 million, compared to $110 million for the live-action/CGI animation hybrid “Smurfs” released in 2011.

In fourth is New Line and Village Roadshow’s “Going In Style,” which looks to be on pace to hit the upper end of trackers’ $10-12 million projections and could possibly take third from “Smurfs” depending on the turnout from senior audiences, who tend to come out later in a film’s release cycle.

Rounding out the top five is Paramount’s “Ghost in the Shell,” which is expected to just make around $9 million after making a mere $75 million worldwide in its first week in theaters against a reported $110 million budget before P&A. The maligned Scarlett Johansson action film gets its opening in China this weekend, but with a $7.8 million Friday in that market, don’t expect the Chinese to put “Ghost in the Shell” in the red.