'Boss' beats 'Beauty' and 'Ghost in the Shell' in the battle for box office supremacy

In a squeaker, Fox and DreamWorks Animation's CG-animated family comedy "The Boss Baby" claimed the top spot at the box office, pulling in a bigger-than-expected weekend estimate of $49 million in the U.S. and Canada. Continuing to hold strong in its third weekend in release, "Beauty and the Beast" followed closely behind with $47.5 million, bringing the musical fairy tale's domestic total to within spitting distance of $400 million and its global haul to more than $875 million. Heading into the weekend, box office prognosticators were projecting an opening for "The Boss Baby" in the neighborhood of $33 million. But, with many kids across the country now on spring break and "Beauty and the Beast" no longer sucking up all the oxygen, "The Boss Baby" managed to handily outperform those expectations. Reviews for "The Boss Baby" -- which cast Alec Baldwin as the voice of a ruthless capitalist infant who declares with Trump-ian bluster that "cookies are for closers" -- were mixed at best, but audiences proved more favorable, giving the CG-animated film a CinemaScore of A-minus.