DreamWorks/Universal's "The Bad Guys" debuted atop the domestic box office last weekend with $24 million, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore.
Another animated film, Paramount Pictures' "Sonic the Hedgehog 2," nabbed second place in its third weekend, adding $15.2 million for a North American cumulative of $145.8 million. Rounding out the top three is Warner Bros.' "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore," which sustained a 67% drop in ticket sales and grossed $14 million last weekend for a North American cumulative gross of $67.1 million.
Directed by Pierre Perifel, "The Bad Guys" centers on a band of former criminals -- a wolf, a piranha, a snake, a tarantula and a shark -- on a mission to improve their villainous reputations.
Leading the star-studded voice cast of the cartoon adventure are Sam Rockwell, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Marc Maron and Craig Robinson. The family film posted a solid 85% score on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes and a favorable A grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore.
The apparent health of family moviegoing is especially good news for Hollywood as it heads into its lucrative summer season when films like Universal's own "Minions: Rise of Gru" and Walt Disney Co.'s "Lightyear" -- the first Pixar film opening in theaters in two years -- hope to approach pre-pandemic levels.
"There's reason for being more than cautiously optimistic," said Jim Orr, head of distribution for Universal. "I think audiences this summer are going to be flooding into theaters."
While studios have been hesitant to program many films against each other during the pandemic, the weekend saw a rarity: three new wide releases, all of them well-received, none of them sequels or remakes.
Also new to theaters last weekend were Focus Features' "The Northman" and Lionsgate's "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent," which landed in fourth and fifth place, respectively. "The Northman" premiered at $12 million domestically, while "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" opened with $7.2 million.
Helmed by director Robert Eggers, "The Northman" stars Alexander Skarsgard as a Viking prince on a journey to avenge his father's death.
Among the stacked supporting cast of the action flick are Anya Taylor-Joy, Claes Bang, Bjork, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Nicole Kidman. The period epic received a glowing 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and a lackluster B grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore.
"Every weekend is a building block in the recovery, but I don't even want to call it a recovery. I think movie theaters are recovered. We're pretty much there," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. "Three newcomers were all well-received, and all of them found an audience."
"The Northman," which saw its budget balloon beyond $70 million, was a major increase in scale for Eggers, the director of previous indie historical horrors "The Witch" and "The Lighthouse." The film's path to profitability was unlikely even before premiering in theaters, but it opened on the higher side of expectations with $12 million in ticket sales. It added $6.3 million internationally in 26 territories.
"First and foremost, we wanted to work with Robert Eggers," said Lisa Bunnell, head of distribution for Focus, which had handled international distribution for Eggers' first two films. "The key here is that we got to make a film that we wanted to make with a filmmaker we feel is part of the future of American cinema. He's got a very distinctive voice. He's making film with original IP [intellectual property], not just going in: 'Let's make a sequel!'"
Lionsgate's "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent," a comedy starring Nicolas Cage as an exaggerated version of himself, opened with an estimated $7.2 million. The film, which first debuted to warm reviews out of South by Southwest, will depend on good word of mouth to approach netting its $30 million budget.
That's the kind of success that "Everything Everywhere All at Once" has had. The A24 release, a madcap metaverse fantasy starring Michelle Yeoh, has been one of the brightest signs for the specialty film business, another sector of the industry that struggled theatrically during the pandemic. In its fifth week, "Everything Everywhere All at Once" grossed $5.4 million, a drop of just 12% from the week prior.
Opening in wide release today is Open Road Films' crime thriller "Memory," starring Liam Neeson.