The Jungle Book ($936,836,881)

Warner Bros. has pushed their competing Jungle Book film, Andy Serkis’ motion-capture Jungle Book: Origins, all the way to 2017. Capitalizing on that announcement, Disney has opted to reveal the first concept art and logo for its own Jungle Book adaptation, director Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book.  The film will be a blend of live-action and CG animation, with Neel Sethi filling the live-action role of Mowgli while Bill Murray voices Baloo, Idris Elba lends his pipes to Shere Khan, and Scarlett Johansson brings Kaa to life.  While Disney touts this as a live-action film, I’ll be interested to see just how many live-action environments are used, since almost all of the animals appear to be CG.

Mowgli—a man-cub raised in the jungle by a family of wolves—embarks on a captivating journey of self-discovery when he’s forced to abandon the only home he’s ever known.

The film also stars Lupita Nyong’o, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Walken, and Giancarlo Esposito. 

See an all-new live-action retelling of The Jungle Book, coming to theaters on October 9, 2015.

ForeverBlu wrote:Jon Faverau?

Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book opened to a massive $103.6 million at the North American box office in another win for Disney's live-action studio as it spins classic titles into modern-day tentpoles.

Overseas, the family friendly movie is also doing enormous business, grossing $136.1 million over the weekend — including a sizeable $50.3 million bow in China — for a foreign total of $187.4 million and and early global tally of $291 million. It began rolling out in some territories a week ago, including India, where it's earned $20.1 million, making it the third-highest Hollywood release ever after only 10 days in release.

Jungle Book's weekend worldwide tally clocked in at $240 million for first-place finish. In North America, Jungle Book scored the No. 1 April debut for a PG title and the No. 2 April opening of all time for any film behind last year's Furious 7 ($146.2 million), and besting the likes of Captain America: The Winter Solider ($95 million), Fast Five ($86.2 million) and Fast and Furious ($71 million).

Jungle Book, a live-action/CGI reimagining of Rudyard Kipling's eponymous book about an orphaned human boy whose guardians are animals, was buoyed by rave reviews and an A CinemaScore. It lured not only families (49 percent), but adults (43 percent) and teens (8 percent). The movie introduces Neel Sethi as Mowgli, and features the voices of Bill Murray, Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Lupita Nyong'o and Scarlett Johansson, as well as the late Garry Shandling.

The film's better-than-expected performance comes only days after Warner Bros. announced it is pushing its rival Jungle Book movie, directed by Andy Serkis, from 2017 to 2018.

Heading into the weekend, tracking suggested Favreau's film, costing $175 million to produce, would open in line with fellow Disney live-action titles Cinderella ($67.9 million) and Maleficent ($69.4 million). Jungle Book debuted in 4,208 theaters in North America; more than 3,000 of those offered the film in a variety of premium formats (3D screens accounted for 43 percent). Imax locations turned in $20.4 million globally, a record for a PG title, including $10.4 million in the U.S. and $5.1 million in China, a record for April.