'Fantastic Four' stretches lead to second week at the box office
'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.
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 USD 40 million in the Friday-through-Sunday period, a 66 per cent drop from the prior weekend, for a two-week global total of USD 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 USD 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 USD 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 USD 13.9 million, Exhibitor Relations said.
That puts the global take of the film, starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, at USD 551 million.
'Jurassic World: Rebirth' -- the latest installment in the blockbuster dinosaur saga -- finished in fifth place with USD 8.7 million. Its worldwide total stands at USD 765 million after five weeks in theaters.
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 USD 6.8 million.
"This is a very good opening for an indie horror pic," Gross said.
Rounding out the top 10 were, 'F1: The Movie' (USD 4.1 million), 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' (USD 2.7 million), 'Smurfs' (USD 1.8 million), 'How to Train Your Dragon' (USD 1.4 million).