'Dragon Ball' anime surprises with win over slow box office
Anime heroes prevailed over good old-fashioned rogue lions at the box office over the weekend, as Crunchyroll (NYSE:SONY) scored a win with Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
The film grossed $20.1M in wide release domestically, easily surpassing a fellow opener in Idris Elba's Beast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), which grossed $11.6M.
More important, though, was that Dragon Ball Super's $20M was better than expected in a known dead period for the movies. Most observers expect some very quiet weekends until perhaps October.
The two debuts displaced Bullet Train (SONY), itself a quiet leader of the domestic gross chart for the past two weeks. The film drew $8M to bring its domestic total to $69M; it's made a total of $150M worldwide.
Speaking of trains (and planes, if not automobiles), Top Gun: Maverick (PARA) (PARAA) kept chugging along to a steady $5.9M in its 13th weekend of release - and amazingly, it was still available in 2,969 theaters after more than three months since opening.
That was enough to drive the film to become the sixth-highest grossing movie ever for domestic box office. It passed Marvel hit Avengers: Infinity War to land at $683.4M and counting; can it tackle Black Panther's $700.4M at No. 5?
Behind Tom Cruise and Top Gun for the weekend were DC League of Super-Pets (WBD), with $5.8M, and Thor: Love and Thunder (DIS), with $4M.
In more limited-release success, horror prequel Orphan: First Kill (PARA) (PARAA) brought in $1.7M in just 498 theaters.
Exhibitors seemed to have plenty on their minds besides the box office Monday - with Cineworld (OTCPK:CNNWF) (OTCPK:CNWGY) ready to file for bankruptcy (Cineworld shares slid more than 20% in London Monday), and with NYSE:AMC
tumbling 42% alongside the issue of its new NYSE:APE
preferred equity, which itself dropped 14%. Other tickers: Cinemark (CNK); (IMAX); Marcus (MCS); Reading International (RDI); Cineplex (CGX:CA); National CineMedia (NCMI).