Beast was no match for Dragon Ball. In an unusual development, an anime film, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero topped the domestic box office and beat Idris Elba’s Beast.
The Japanese computer-animated action-adventure, penned by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, won by a clear margin – $21 million (experts said it could be more by Monday) over $10.1 million for Elba’s survival thriller film.
Directed by Tetsuro Kodama, the 21st installment in the Dragon Ball feature film series mainly uses 3D animation to narrate its saga of two protagonists named Piccolo and Gohan trying to thwart the sinister plans of Red Ribbon Army androids.
Distributed in North America by Sony Pictures, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is voiced by Japanese actors led by Masako Nozawa, Toshio Furukawa, and Yuko Minaguchi.
Baltasar Kormakur’s Beast, set in a game reserve in South Africa, settled for second place.
The adventure-drama-horror narrates how a widowed husband, played by Elba, takes his two daughters (Iyana Halley and Leah Jeffries) on a safari to reconnect as a family. Instead, the three find themselves hunted by a marauding lion. Sharlto Copley co-stars.
The two debuting films were followed by Brad Pitt’s Bullet Train which grabbed another $7.7 million to add to its North American total of $68.6 million so far.
Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick took the fourth spot with $5.6 million. The sequel fell out of the top five only once in its 13-week run. Amassing $683.1 million in ticket sales, the blockbuster has flown past Avengers: Infinity War to become the sixth all-time highest-grosser in the US and Canada.
Now, box office analysts are posing the tantalizing question – will Cruise’s blockbuster surpass Black Panther’s $700.4 million to enter the magic five North American all-time biggest hits?
In the meantime, Maverick, which will stay in cinemas, will also be available on digital platforms to rent or buy on August 23 and will be released on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD on November 1.
DC League of Super-Pets, voiced by Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, hung on to the top five with $4.8 million.
Comprising the rest of the top ten were, in order: Thor: Love and Thunder, $3.8 million; Nope, $3.58 million; Minions: The Rise of Gru, $3.26 million; Where the Crawdads Sing, $3 million; and Bodies Bodies Bodies, $2.3 million.
Internationally, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero bowed to $12 million in over 30 territories. On its second week of offshore release, Beast collected $10.2 million. Bullet Train has garnered $81 million overseas.
Maverick continues to fly high, boosted by these offshore territories (listed in order) which have significantly contributed to the movie’s astounding $1.40 billion worldwide earnings: the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Australia, France, Germany, Taiwan, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, in the streaming world, Stranger Things, starring Millie Bobby Brown, Winona Ryder, and Finn Wolfhard, again dominated Nielsen’s streaming top ten chart. This comes amid the big news that streaming viewership surpassed that of television or broadcast for the first time, also according to Nielsen.
The top ten streaming programs were, in order: Stranger Things; The Sea Beast; The Terminal List; Resident Evil (2022); The Boys; Alone; NCIS; The Umbrella Academy; Cocomelon; and Grey’s Anatomy.
