LOS ANGELES, April 10 — The Smurfs may be feeling kind of blue.

The cuddly creatures’ once-promising film franchise is looking awfully creaky after Smurfs: The Lost Village stumbled at the domestic box office this weekend. The Sony release opened to a negligible US$14.1 million (RM62.53 million).

The film was an attempt to reinvigorate the series after 2013’s The Smurfs 2 racked up a disappointing US$347.5 million on a hefty US$105 million budget. It’s a fall from quite a height. The first film, 2011’s The Smurfs, had showed such promise, grossing US$563.7 million globally, but interest in the big screen adventures of the creatures has waned with each sequel.

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With the Smurfs failing to generate much excitement, DreamWorks Animation and Fox’s The Boss Baby captured first place at the North American box office for the second consecutive weekend, earning US$26.3 million to push its domestic haul to US$89.4 million. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast came in second, pulling in US$25 million to push its stateside grosses to a lordly US$432.3 million.

Box office analysts blame the glut of family titles for hobbling the Smurfs.

“They should have waited a few weeks to open it,” said Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations.

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Bock was ready to write the obituary for the franchise, saying, “A major studio does not open an animated film at US$14 million and expect to have a sequel.”

This weekend is something of a throat clearing for the industry.

The Fate of the Furious, the latest chapter in Universal’s long-running chronicle of vehicular carnage, is slated to roar into theaters next Friday. It should dominate ticket sales, racking up an US$100 million debut and keeping Vin Diesel in designer tank tops for the foreseeable future.

“It’s looming large on the horizon,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore. “It’s going to be a monstrous debut.”

New Line and Village Roadshow’s Going in Style took fourth place with US$12.5 million. The comedy about three retirees who rob a bank stars Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin, and Michael Caine. It’s a low-budget remake of a 1979 comedy of the same name and cost US$24 million to produce. The film resonated with older crowds, with 72 per cent of the audience clocking in over the age of 50.

“The chemistry of the three guys really works together,” said Jeff Goldstein, domestic distribution chief at Warner Bros, New Line’s studio parent company.

“They have fun together and it shows. It was a core part of the film’s appeal.”

Paramount’s “Ghost in the Shell” rounded out the top five, grossing US$7.3 million to bring its domestic gross to a disastrous US$31.6 million.

The Japanese manga adaptation is shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest bombs.

Dogged by “whitewashing” controversy after Scarlett Johansson nabbed a part intended for an Asian actress, Ghost in the Shell won’t stand a chance of recouping its US$110 million production budget.

Sony isn’t ready to wave the white flag on the Smurfs.

The studio notes that the previous two films earned more than 70 per cent of their gross from foreign markets. The studio is also pleased with the film’s A CinemaScore, a sign that audiences are responding to the picture.

“We delivered a film that I think is the best yet,” said Rory Bruer, Sony’s domestic distribution chief.

“Word-of-mouth should be strong.”

Sony also reined in costs. Smurfs: The Lost Village has a US$60 million production budget, a fraction of the previous two entries’ price tag.

However, the weak result extends a punishing period for Sony.

The studio has been dogged by bombs such as Life and Inferno, while highly anticipated releases such as Passengers, a science-fiction romance with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, struggled to turn a profit.

In limited release, Their Finest opened on four screens in New York and Los Angeles to US$77,000 for a per-screen average of US$19,250. The comedy is set in World War II-era London and follows a troop of propaganda filmmakers. EuropaCorp bought the picture out of the Toronto Film Festival — STX is distributing Their Finest on its behalf.

Neon, a new label from Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League and indie veteran Tom Quinn, debuted Colossal to US$125,809 from four theaters. The off-beat monster movie stars Anne Hathaway and enjoyed a solid US$31,452 per-screen average.

Overall ticket sales were up more than 15 per cent on the prior-year period.

Last year at this time Melissa McCarthy’s The Boss topped charts with a US$23.6 million bow.

Thanks to hits such as Beauty and the Beast and Logan, 2017 continues to outpace 2016, with revenues up 5 per cent. — Variety.com/Reuters