The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Disney’s debut of the rebooted Marvel Comics franchise, continued to outperform the competition for a second straight weekend at the North American box office, industry estimates showed Sunday (Aug 3).
Actor-of-the-moment Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Emmy-winner Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn star as the titular team of superheroes, who must save a retro-futuristic world from the evil Galactus.
The film pulled in an estimated US$40 million (S$51.5 million) in the Friday-through-Sunday period, a 66 per cent drop from the prior weekend, for a two-week global total of US$368 million.
Universal’s family-friendly animation sequel The Bad Guys 2, about a squad of goofy animal criminals actually doing good in their rebranded lives, debuted in second spot, earning US$22.2 million.
“This is a good opening for an animation follow-up sequel,” said David A Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.
The film edged out Paramount’s reboot of Naked Gun, a slapstick comedy starring Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr, son of the bumbling police lieutenant from the original 1980s movie and related television series Police Squad!.
It pulled in US$17 million in its opening weekend.
Superman, the latest big-budget action film featuring the iconic superhero from Warner Bros and DC Studios, slipped from second to fourth at US$13.9 million, Exhibitor Relations said.
That puts the global take of the film, starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, at US$551 million.
Jurassic World: Rebirth – the latest installment in the blockbuster dinosaur saga – finished in fifth place with US$8.7 million. Its worldwide total stands at US$765 million after five weeks in theatres.
Independent horror film Together, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and was picked up by Neon, claimed sixth spot in its debut weekend with US$6.8 million.
“This is a very good opening for an indie horror pic,” Gross said.
