Dragon Ball Super: Super Heroes grossed an impressive $20.1 million at the North American box office, easily enough to win the weekend. This number may climb further once it is equal to Sunday’s earnings.
Crunchyroll, which distributes the Japanese film in North America, says the sequel marks the best global debut ever for an anime film. Overseas, the film opened to $12 million from 32 markets, including $11.2 million from markets operated by Sony Pictures International.
Directed by Tetsuro Kodama from a story by series creator Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball Super 2 is the 21st feature film in the long-running Dragon Ball universe and the sequel to 2018’s Dragon Ball Super: Broly. The CGI-animated martial arts fantasy, produced by Toei Animation, is playing in more than 3,100 theaters in North America, including 324 IMAX locations, which contributed a whopping $3.4 million, and in over 100 countries overall.
In 2018, Dragon Ball Super: Broly opened to $9.8 million domestically from approximately 1,200 theaters.
In those watching Dragon Ball Super 2, the men took the U.S. made up 75 percent of the buyers, while 70 percent of the audience was between the ages of 18 and 35.
Dragon Ball Super: Super Heroes easily outpaced the weekend’s other nationwide new offering, the Beast.
Directed by Baltasar Kormakur, Beast debuted in second place with a modest gross of $11.6 million from 3,743 theaters. While it’s tracking in line, it’s still off to a disappointing start to the Universal release, which stars Idris Elba as a father who takes his teenage daughters on safari, only to come face-to-face with an angry lion. come. The Beast, which received a lukewarm B CinemaScore, was similarly skewed male (56 percent).
Overseas, the Beast made $10.3 million from its first seven markets with a global debut of $21.9 million.
As Hollywood emerges from the pandemic, the August box office is particularly light in terms of the traditional summer tentacles this year after a strong May, June and July. Product shortages are putting additional pressure on theater chains, with mega-chain Cineworld – Regal Cinemas’ parent company – revealing Friday that it is exploring bankruptcy.
Elsewhere at the box office, Sony’s Bullet Train came in third in its sophomore outing with an estimated $8 million. This is a slight decline of 41 per cent.
Op Gun: Maverick remained high on the charts, flying past the $700 million mark at the domestic box office. And on Sunday, the Paramount and Skydance project became the ninth highest-grossing project of all films globally after surpassing $1.4 billion in worldwide ticket sales.
Elsewhere, A24’s exclusive picture Body of Bodies made the top 10 domestically, as it expanded to more than 2,500 locations and grossed $2.4 million over the weekend and a domestic total of $7.4 million.