Box Office Discussion: Having a "Ball"

 Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero races out to an outstanding start, while Beast ends up looking more like a kittycat.

For years, anime was considered very much a niche in North America.  Certainly, a handful of anime shows would break through to become mainstream successes in the US, but most of the anime that made it to TV were shows aimed squarely at kids.  But gradually, thanks to the Toonami block on Cartoon Network and eventually the rise of Cruchyroll and Funmation, finding anime that appeals more to adults became easier and easier.  And for the last few years, that has spilled over into the multiplex.  Three and a half years ago, it was a genuine shock when Dragon Ball Super: Broly exceeded all expectations and grossed over $20 million in its first five days.  Today, after the success of titles like Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train and Jujutsu Kaisen 0, that the new Dragon Ball movie gets off to an equally outstanding start was exactly what was expected.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero opened to an outstanding $21.1 million, almost equaling the start of Demon Slayer for the best opening of a non-Pokémon anime in North America.  The action film, the latest entry in the long-running Dragon Ball franchise, becomes the first anime title to open at #1 since Pokémon: The First Movie back in 1999.  Like most anime titles, this one looks to be very frontloaded (it earned almost half of its weekend take from Thursday night previews and Friday), but it will still likely top $40 million in the US and could potentially challenge Demon Slayer's $49.9 million final, particularly since, compared to the dark, R-rated Demon Slayer, the PG-13 Dragon Ball is considerably lighter and more family friendly.

Opening rather unimpressively in second was Beast, the new thriller starring Idris Elba as a man who must protect his two daughters from a vicious lion in the African savanna.  The film was able to pull in $11.6 million, which is on the lower end of projections.  That's a bit less than what the lesser-hyped Crawl opened to three years ago.  A good comparison for this might be Elba's 2017 survival thriller The Mountain Between Us, which opened to slightly less than Beast did and topped out around $30 million back in 2017. 

After two weeks on top, Bullet Train begins to approach the station by falling to third.  The weekend's other Japan-set movie took in $8 million to bring its total to $69 million.  The good news is that it still running even with The Lost City, which means it still has a solid shot at hitting $100 million, though likely not much beyond that.

Not landing at all is Top Gun: Maverick, which continues to fly high with another $5.9 million.  The year's biggest film now stands at $683.4 million, having passed Avengers: Infinity War for #6 all time in North America.  Up next is Black Panther's $700.4 million, which it seems almost certain to pass in the coming days.  That will likely be the last rung Maverick climbs past as Avatar and its $760.5 million is probably out of reach.  But the film has defied all expectations before, so never say never.

DC League of Super-Pets took in $5.7 million for a total of $67.4 million.  As more and more kids start school, its weekday grosses are beginning to show some serious erosion.  That said, it’s still tracking slightly ahead of The Bad Guys at the same point in its run, which suggests a final gross somewhere between $95 million and maybe just over $100 million.

With Thor: Love and Thunder now the officially highest-grossing Thor movie and its Disney+ debut announced, what's left at the box office is pretty much gravy, as it took in $4.1 million for a total of $332.2 million.  Minions: The Rise of Gru still has an outside shot of catching Despicable Me 2, but with $3.7 million for the weekend and $350.2 million total, that seems unlikely.

Rounding out the Top 10, Nope was able to take in $3.6 million for a total of $113.8 million, When the Crawdads Sing made $3.2 million for $77.8 million, and Bodies Bodies Bodies grossed $2.4 million for $7.4 million.

Outside the Top 10, Orphan: First Kill, the prequel to the 2009 horror movie Orphan (with 25-year-old Isabelle Fuhman playing a younger version of a character she played when she was 12) did surprisingly strong business in limited release, grossing $1.7 million despite also playing day and date on Paramount Plus.  Ten-day totals for last weekend's newcomers are $4.9 million for Fall, $3 million for Laal Singh Chaddha, $2.1 million for Mack & Rita, and $1.8 million for the IMAX re-release of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.

In what is likely to be a slow last week of August, two new movies arrive to challenge Dragon Ball for #1.  The Invitation stars Game of Throne's Nathalie Emmanuel as a young woman whose discovery of family members she never knew about turns horrifying when she's trapped in a British mansion with them after discovering their horrible secret.  This sounds a bit like Ready or Not, which opened to $8 million coming off a late August opening three years ago.  That seems like a good start number for The Invitation.  Meanwhile, Three Thousand Years of Longing is the second Idris Elba movie in two weeks, as he plays a djinn who promises scholar Tilda Swinton three wishes in exchange for his freedom.  The film, directed by Mad Max: Fury Road's George Miller, is supposed to be a visual feast.  Will Dragon Ball have a super second weekend?  Will The Invitation invite itself to the top spot?  Or will Three Thousand Years of Longing successfully long for #1?  We'll find out next week.