DIS Walt Disney Co

Associated Press 

"The Jungle Book" remained king of the box office in its second weekend in theaters, beating new opener "The Huntsman: Winter's War" by around $40 million, according to comScore estimates Sunday.

The Walt Disney Co. spectacle, a mix of live action and computer-generated images, is proving to be an all-audience success story. With a PG rating and solid word-of-mouth, its business declined just 41% in weekend No. 2. The film brought in $60.8 million in the U.S. and Canada, bumping its domestic total to $191.5 million in just 10 days in theaters.

The spectacular and somewhat unexpected hold of "The Jungle Book" overshadowed the debut of "The Huntsman: Winter's War," which, despite its high-wattage cast, including Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain, had a somewhat lackluster $20.1 million bow.

The movie cost $115 million to produce and is a follow-up to the 2012 fairy-tale fantasy "Snow White and the Huntsman." this time focused on Mr. Hemsworth's character. The first film was budgeted at $170 million, earned $56.2 million in its debut and went on to gross $396.6 million world-wide.

Several factors may have contributed to the uninspiring performance of the sequel, including the absence of original star Kristen Stewart, said comScore senior analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "Snow White and the Huntsman" opened in June 2012 right in between the releases of the final two "Twilight" films, which also starred Ms. Stewart.

"She was a key reason for the opening of that first film," Mr. Dergarabedian said. "That was going to be a tough act to follow."

"The Huntsman" also failed to impress critics and is hovering around 17% on the Rotten Tomatoes review site. Opening weekend audiences however gave the film a more promising B+ CinemaScore.

"I would have liked more people to go see ours, but I certainly wouldn't call it a flop either," said Nick Carpou, president of domestic distribution for Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal.

"The final chapter of this one has not been written, but with a B+ CinemaScore and the audience appeal that it has, I think there's a chance we're going to play out a bit better than that word (flop) would indicate."

"Barbershop: The Next Cut" landed in third place, with $10.8 million in its second weekend in theaters. "Zootopia" and "The Boss" rounded out the top five with $6.6 million and $6.1 million, respectively.

But this weekend, which is up 29% from a year earlier, is all about "The Jungle Book." Mr. Dergarabedian said the film could help jump-start the summer movie season.

This year's box office is up 9.2% from a year earlier, and now the big "Jungle Book" audiences are being exposed to all of the trailers for the coming season, which kicks off with the launch of "Captain America: Civil War" in the first week of May.

"Just like 'Furious 7' last year, 'The Jungle Book' is providing a great lead in for a really big summer movie season," said Mr. Dergarabedian.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 24, 2016 18:42 ET (22:42 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.