"DC League of Super-Pets," an animated family film from Warner Bros., topped a weaker North American box office last weekend, as the major summer moviegoing season starts to draw to a close.
"Super-Pets" made $23 million in its opening weekend across 4,314 domestic cinemas, according to an estimate from Comscore Inc. on Sunday.
"Super-Pets" is based on the DC Comics series. It follows crime-fighting pets, including a dog owned by Superman, and stars Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. The movie has mostly positive critical reviews, with a 71% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The performance of "Super-Pets" is middling for a pandemic family film. But it outperformed another Paramount film: "Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank," which made $6.3 million in its domestic opening earlier in July.
Analysts had pegged "Super-Pets" for a $25 million launch, which was on the lower end for animated openings this summer. In June, the $50.6 million for "Lightyear" was considered underwhelming for the $200 million Disney/Pixar movie. Then in early July, Universal's "Minions: The Rise of Gru" captured $107 million in its first three days.
But "Super-Pets" is more comparable to Universal's "The Bad Guys," which netted about $97 million domestic after a $23 million opening.
"This opening is a huge win for DC fans, the box office, WB and our filmmakers," said Jeff Goldstein, the studio's president of domestic distribution.
"Super-Pets" was not intended to be a midsummer release. Originally, "Super-Pets" had been slated for May, while this past weekend was reserved for "Black Adam," Warner Bros.' other Dwayne Johnson superhero pic. But postproduction delays due to a backup at VFX houses forced "Black Adam" to move to October. Instead of giving up the prime date, the studio filled the open spot with a family-friendly title with an all-star voice cast, including John Krasinski, Keanu Reeves and Kate McKinnon as an evil guinea pig.
"The interest is red hot," Goldstein said. "Young family movies play for a long time. Given our CinemaScore of A- and word of mouth, we're going to be around for a while."
Second place went to Universal's "Nope," which fell 57% from its debut July 22 and earned an additional $18.6 million. The North American grosses for "Nope" are now sitting at $80.6 million before it begins its international expansion this month.
"Thor: Love and Thunder" took third place with $13.1 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $301.5 million. Its global total is now sitting at $662 million, without a release in China.
"Minions: The Rise of Gru" stuck its heels in fourth place in its fifth weekend with $10.9 million. Worldwide, it has now earned $710.4 million.
And rounding out the top five was "Top Gun: Maverick," which made an additional $8.2 million in its 10th weekend, bringing its domestic total to $650.1 million.
Major new theatrical releases were limited last weekend, but gave audiences a variety of options. Focus Features debuted the film "Vengeance" in 998 locations where it earned an estimated $1.8 million. B.J. Novak's directorial debut follows a podcaster (Novak) who travels from New York to west Texas to investigate the death of his girlfriend. The well-reviewed thriller features Issa Rae and Ashton Kutcher. And Bleecker Street opened the Sundance charmer "A Love Song," starring Wes Studi and Dale Dickey, in four theaters, where it earned an estimated $18,702.
"July generated over $1 billion, and that's impressive. It's the first billion-dollar month since December 2019," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. "That gives us a tailwind going into August, but don't expect any $100 million debuts for a while."
After Columbia Pictures releases the Brad Pitt-led action film "Bullet Train" today, the release schedule for big-budget movies is expected to slow until later in 2022.