Disney’s live-action remake earns $32.4 million at the Friday box office

“The Jungle Book” earned an estimated $32.4 million on Friday as Disney’s new live-action family film seems ready to pounce on an impressive $87 million opening weekend.

Director Jon Favreau‘s adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling classic opened in 4,028 theaters and earned an A from CinemaScore audiences as well as a 95 percent Rotten Tomatoes score.

MGM-New Line’s sequel comedy “Barber Shop: The Next Cut” is expected to snip off about $20 million in box office from 2,661 locations, coming in a distant second Friday with $7 million.

Also Read: 'Jungle Book' Dilemma for Parents: Are Live-Action Movies Scarier Than Animated Ones?

In its second weekend in theaters, “The Boss,” starring Melissa McCarthy, took third place on Friday with $3.1 million. Warner Brothers comic book tent-pole “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” held fourth position with $2.4 million on Friday.

“The Jungle Book” grossed $4.2 million on Thursday, the same amount “Maleficent” earned on its 2014 Thursday debut — but Disney’s latest live-action remake of an animated classic moved past the Angelina Jolie film as the weekend progressed — as “Maleficent” earned only $24.3 million on its opening Friday, going on to hit $69.4 million during its opening weekend.

“Jungle Book” also surpassed Disney’s 2015 live-action fairy-tale remake “Cinderella,” which opened to $23 million Friday and garnered a first-weekend total of $67.9 million.

Also Read: 'Jungle Book' Scores Disney's Best-Ever Reviews for a Movie Based on a Cartoon

Initial projections for “Jungle Book” ranged wildly from $65 million to $87 million. But now it’s looking like the higher projections will prevail.

“The Jungle Book” is a second live-action remake of Disney’s 1967 classic animated feature, based on Kipling’s stories about Mowgli, an abandoned boy who is raised by wolves and a black panther named Bagheera.

The 2016 film stars Bill Murray as Baloo, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, Scarlett Johansson as Kaa, Lupita Nyong’o as Raksha and newcomer Neel Sethi as Mowgli.

'The Jungle Book' Has Company in the Journey From the Page to the Screen (Photos)

Disney is set to make big bucks revitalizing its past work when "The Jungle Book" is released this weekend. Obviously, the animated classic comes to mind, but Rudyard Kipling's stories have a long history in film.
Disney
The first film version of "The Jungle Book" came 25 years before Disney's version, with Indian actor Sabu playing Mowgli.
Disney also did a previous, completely-live-action "Jungle Book" in 1994, featuring a pre-"Game Of Thrones" Lena Headey.
Disney
Another book with multiple adaptations under its name is Lew Wallace's "Ben-Hur." Most people remember the Charlton Heston epic that won 11 Oscars ...
MGM
... but before that was a 1925 silent film praised for having an epic scale never seen on film before. It helped establish MGM as one of Hollywood's studio titans.
MGM
Now MGM is going back to "Ben-Hur" for a third remake (this time teaming with Paramount), featuring Morgan Freeman as Ben-Hur's chariot trainer.
MGM/Paramount
The "Lord of the Rings" films turned Peter Jackson from midnight movie auteur to Oscar-winning superstar, but Tolkien wasn't the only influence on his style.
New Line
Jackson also credits the 1978 animated "LOTR" adaptation as a major inspiration. Directed by animation legend Ralph Bakshi, the film is a cult curiosity with animation buffs, but didn't make enough money to get a sequel that would have finished the trilogy.
United Artists
Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" has seen film adaptations for over a century, the most recent being Disney's 3D animated version starring Jim Carrey.
The most critically acclaimed adaptation is 1951's "Scrooge," which starred Alastair Sim as the titular misanthrope.
But the earliest version of "Scrooge" dates all the way back to 1901, and comes in the form of a short film that was one of the earliest demonstrations of moving pictures. Dickens' tale is one of the first literary works ever adapted into a movie.
Which books get adapted more than any other? That honor has to go to the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, which have been adapted into more than 200 films with over 75 actors, like Robert Downey, Jr., playing the famed detective.
Other actors who have played Holmes include Peter O'Toole, "Doctor Who" star Tom Baker, Ian McKellen and horror icon Peter Cushing.

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Rudyard Kipling’s novel has been made into a movie several times, as have these other literary classics with multiple film adaptations

Disney is set to make big bucks revitalizing its past work when "The Jungle Book" is released this weekend. Obviously, the animated classic comes to mind, but Rudyard Kipling's stories have a long history in film.

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