‘Beauty and the Beast’ dazzles again, ‘Power Rangers’ off to solid start

Disney's second weekend of blockbuster "Beauty and the Beast" is dominating moviegoing in North America with $88.3 million at 4,210 locations - capping the best March ever.

Lionsgate's rebooted "Power Rangers" is launching with a solid $40.5 million this weekend while Sony's space-thriller "Life" showed only moderate traction with $12.6 million. Warner Bros.' action-comedy "Chips" opened with a disappointing $7.6 million at 2,464 sites.

The "Beauty and the Beast" weekend is one for the record books as the fourth-largest second weekend of all time, trailing only "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" at $149 million, "Jurassic World" at $106 million, and "Marvel's The Avengers" at $103 million.

"Beauty and the Beast," starring Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast, declined just 49% from its opening weekend, which was the seventh-best ever. And after just 10 days in North American theaters, "Beauty and the Beast" is already 55th on the all-time domestic list at $317 million. It's the fourth-largest 10-day domestic total ever.

"Beauty and the Beast," along with Fox's "Logan," Warner's "Kong: Skull Island," and Universal's "Get Out," have led a charge over the past month that has given the domestic box office a major boost. According to comScore, March box office has already hit $1 billion for the first time -- with five days left in the month.

"March has become a rockstar of a month and in particular 2017 enjoyed a perfect storm of new hits and strong February releases that showed amazing staying power like 'Get Out' and 'The Lego Batman Movie,' " said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with comScore. "The cumulative allure of an impressive slate of films conjured up a flat out great month in theaters, generating impressive momentum as the industry charges into what promises to be a furious April and a smashing summer movie season that kicks off in May with 'Guardians of the Galaxy 2.'