A Look At The Box Office Prospects Of March 2017's Numerous Blockbusters

March 2017 is jam-packed with big releases with one big blockbuster arriving each week and even two blockbusters arriving in a single weekend late in the month. I honestly predict that not only will March 2017 beat out March 2016 as the biggest March at the box office ever, it'll also be the first time any given March grosses over $1 billion in its 31 day long lifespan. Seeing as how I'm a big box office obsessive, I got to thinking about the various box office prospects of these films by way of considering how their marketing campaigns are going and how past similar movies have performed at the box office. I've compiled my thoughts below on how I currently predict the six blockbusters of March 2017 will fare, so let's get right down to it!



March 3rd
LOGAN

Prior to its first trailer, Logan was shrouded in mystery, with plot details being scarce and people being extremely trepidatious of the project due to that first Wolverine movie being one of the all-time worst superhero films, while the reputation of the clawed mutants solo outings wasn't helped by the second Wolverine movie (which received far better marks from critics and audiences) being currently the lowest-grossing X-Men movie of all-time at the domestic box office. The film was being greeted with mostly just puzzlement all around....and then the first teaser hit. Suddenly, interest shot through the roof over this movie, which looked quite unlike any other superhero movie ever seen.

Time will tell if the movie itself can live up to that glorious trailer (good superhero movie trailers can be deceiving, just ask Man Of Steel) but there's no doubt that Fox has done a bang-up job marketing this film, emphasizing elements like the uniquely somber tone, the presence of X-23 (the little girl with the Wolverine), the R-rating and the fact that this is Hugh Jackman's last time playing Wolverine to help differentiate it from its predecessors. The first Wolverine movie grossed $98.6 million on its opening weekend adjusted for inflation, and while I'll go slightly below that in my opening weekend prediction a month out from its release, I will say I would not be shocked one bit if Logan ends up joining fellow X-Men feature Deadpool as one of only two R-rated movies to gross over $100 million on its opening weekend.

Opening Weekend: $93 million
Total Gross: $250 million

March 10th
KONG: SKULL ISLAND

This is a movie that I've been adamantly saying for ages now desperately needs to shift its release date. Opening in between guaranteed blockbusters like Logan and Beauty & The Beast just feels like suicide for King Kong's newest cinematic outing given the shakier ground Kong: Skull Island is built on. At least Warner Bros. has put together a thus far strong marketing campaign for the film, emphasizing a unique tone obviously reminiscent of Apocalypse Now and the presence of big name actors like Samuel L. Jackson and John Goodman.

In terms of box office comparisons, it's difficult to compare this one to the 2005 King Kong movie given that that one opened in December, which has a way different box office pattern to it than March. That being said, Kong probably will outdo the opening weekend of that 2005 Peter Jackson remake while falling way short of its $218 million domestic cume simply because the 2005 Kong feature had the lucrative December holiday breaks to play over while Kong will get battered from three straight weeks of massive competition. We shall see if this one manages to drum up enough monkey business to go higher than my current box office predictions.

Opening Weekend: $55 million
Total Gross: $140 million

March 17th
BEAUTY & THE BEAST

Question marks hover around some of these big March 2017 blockbusters, but really, we all know Beauty & The Beast is gonna make enough cash to fund a couple of small countries. All of the trailers and promotional materials have been spread across the web by excited fans like wildfire while the first advanced tickets are apparently selling at a pace similar to the ones seen by the biggest superhero movies.  So yes, excpet this to follow in the footsteps of last year Jungle Book movie and make a ton of cash. It's likely gonna give Batman v. Superman a run for its money as the title of Biggest March Opening Weekend Of All-Time, though I'll be slightly conserative for now and say it comes up slightly below that.

Opening Weekend: $158 million
Total Gross: $500 million

March 24th
POWER RANGERS

If there's one blockbuster this month that strikes me as a total crapshoot in terms of predicting how it'll perform at the box office, it's this one. Power Ranger is obviously trying to mimic the major success seen by the first Ninja Turtles and G.I. Joe movies and all of the Transformers features in adapting a popular bygone childrens popularity to the big screen. Those aforementioned movies made tons of cash, so it's not at all inconceivable for Power Rangers to follow suit. It's also worth mentioning that three of the last four movies Lionsgate opened in this late March weekend (those three being the first Hunger Games movie and the first two Divergent films), they all opened to over $50 million, which would be a solid result here.

However, some major question marks emerge for this properties financial prospects. First off, the G.I. Joe, Transformers and 2014 Ninja Turtles movie were all adapting 1980's cartoons into live-action movies, giving them a key "You've never seen your childhood favorite characters in the real world before!"  angle in their marketing. Power Rangers is adapting a 1990's live-action show, which means it won't have that animation-to-live-action aspect to make it feel like an event. It's also worth mentioning that the movie Lionsgate launched in late March last year, Allegiant, was a major flop, proving this release date is far from foolproof. For now, I'll say Power Rangers does OK but nowhere near as well as the recent Transformers and Ninja Turtles feature film revivals did.

Opening Weekend: $44 million
Total Gross: $110 million

LIFE
Being a smaller-scale movie (I can't imagine this one cost more than $100 million to make) means Life doesn't need to gross $500 million worldwide to be considered successful. That being said, even with the lower bar to clear for box office victory, Life's prospects at the domestic box office feel murky. It's got a lot of competition to face and its marketing thus far makes it feel derivative of recent astronaut fare like Gravity, The Martian and, of course, the original Alien. Sony/Columbia's also been striking out big time with their blockbuster fare lately, so it wouldn't be shocking to see Life be the newest larger-scale misfire from the studio.

Opening Weekend: $24 million
Total Gross: $66 million

March 31st
GHOST IN THE SHELL
Scarlett Johansson's newest action/adventure is likely to be the big blockbuster bust of the month, if only because it's going to get severely hurt by The Fate Of The Furious three weeks into its run and it'll be coming off a whole month filled to the gills with larger blockbuster fare. So far, it's marketing hasn't done a good job of making it stand out in a crowded marketplace, presenting kooky sci-fi imagery that either comes off as incoherent or generic. Perhaps Scarlett Johansson's star power (she was, after all, a major component of why Lucy major overperformed expectations back in July 2014) and/or the next nearly two whole months of marketing will reverse its current trajectory, but I'm not currently predicting a bright future at the box office for Ghost In The Shell.

Opening Weekend: $29 million
Total Gross: $73 million