Idris Elba may be facing a lion in Beast, but the action movie didn’t measure up to the last film Dragon’s Heat at the North American box office this weekend.
“Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” topped the charts in its opening weekend in theaters with $20.1 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates on Sunday. Meanwhile, “The Beast” settled for a second-place debut with $11.6 million.
Crunchyroll released “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” to 3,900 screens in North America, the widest opening for an anime. The Toei Animation production was directed by Tetsuro Kodama with support from “Dragon Ball” creator Akira Toriyama. The Dragon Ball universe is almost 40 years old and includes a manga, TV show, movies, games, and toys.
“We are thrilled that Dragon Ball fans can come together to see and enjoy this wonderful film in theaters,” Mitchell Berger, the distributor’s senior vice president of global commerce, said in a statement. “Crunchyroll thanks all fans, whether you’re a ‘super’ fan or a newbie, and we hope they keep coming back again and again.”
According to PostTrak, the audience for “Dragon Ball Super” was overwhelmingly male (79%) and 44% between the ages of 25 and 34.
“Japanese anime is a cinematic tradition, but it’s rare to see a film like this top the domestic chart,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “To be ahead of all these Hollywood blockbusters is absolutely incredible. It speaks to the globalization of the box office.”
Meanwhile, “Beast” was shown on 3,743 screens in North America. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur (Everest), Elba stars as the widowed father of two teenage girls, played by Ianna Halle and Leah Jeffries, who escape from a bloodthirsty lion while on a trip to South Africa.
Including international screenings, “Beast” has earned $21.8 million so far.
“I think this is a great start for The Beast,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s head of domestic distribution. “I think we’re going to have a great run at the box office.”
Another film will also open in Elba cinemas this coming weekend – George Miller’s fantasy epic Three Thousand Years of Longing.
Meanwhile, Sony’s “Bullet Train” landed in third place after two weekends in first place with an estimated $8 million, bringing its domestic total to $68.9 million. Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick finished fourth in its 13th weekend in theaters with an additional $5.9 million. Top Gun has grossed more than $683 million in North America to date, good enough to overtake Avengers: Infinity War as the sixth-highest-grossing domestic release of all time. “DC League of Super-Pets” rounded out the top five.
Paramount also released Orphan: First Kill this weekend on Paramount+ and in 498 locations. Esther’s Origin Story grossed an estimated $1.7 million at the box office.
The weekend in North America as a whole sold about $77 million in tickets — up 168% from the same weekend last year — bringing its year-to-date total to $5.2 billion, according to Comscore. But the summer movie season continues its decline, which may continue well into the fall.
“It’s not that there won’t be movies, it’s just that there won’t be a $100 million blockbuster for a while,” Dergarabedian said. “But in the meantime, there will be plenty of cool movies like ‘Don’t Worry, Darling’ (Sept. 23).”
According to Comscore, the estimated volume of ticket sales at theaters in the US and Canada from Friday to Sunday. Final internal data will be released on Monday.
1. “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero,” $20.1 million.
2. “The Beast,” $11.6 million.
3. “Bullet Train”, 8 million dollars.
4. “Top Gun: Maverick,” $5.9 million.
5. “DC League of Super-Pets,” $5.8 million.
6. “Thor: Love and Thunder”, $4 million.
7. No, $3.6 million.
8. Minions: The Rise of Gru, $3.5 million.
9. “Where the Crawdads Sing,” $3.2 million.
10. Bodies Bodies Bodies, $2.4 million.
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