‘The Boss Baby’ Bests ‘Beast,’ Barely, as Box Office No. 1
LOS ANGELES — Show business rule of thumb: Never underestimate a tough-talking tot.
Going into the weekend, most box office analysts predicted that “Beauty and the Beast” would easily remain the No. 1 movie in North America. One challenger, “The Boss Baby,” had received negative reviews. (The Los Angeles Times deemed it a “rancid diaper.”) Another new arrival, “Ghost in the Shell,” had been written off as a contender after becoming embroiled in a “whitewashing” casting controversy.
But “The Boss Baby” — in the tradition of “Look Who’s Talking,” Stewie from “Family Guy” and the cigar-chomping Baby Herman from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” — proved enormously popular, pushing past Belle of “Beauty and the Beast” to take in roughly $49 million. Theaters far from the coasts (Indianapolis, Denver) saw especially strong turnout, according to the film’s…