Anime ‘Dragon Ball’ roars to top of North American box office

COMPUTER-animated martial arts film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, the 21st in the popular Japanese franchise, seized control of the North American box office last weekend with an estimated take of US$20.1 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported on Sunday (Aug 21).

That impressive result for the film from Crunchyroll - which called it the best global opening ever for an anime movie - proved a bright spot in a tepid August, easily outshining the US$11.6 million take of another new release, Universal’s Beast.

“This was another outstanding Crunchyroll anime opening,” said analyst David Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. He said Crunchyroll, which is 95 per cent owned by Sony, now “dominates the genre”.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero benefitted from its outsized presence on premium formats, including Imax, 4DX and Dolby Cinemas. The movie played on 327 Imax screens in North America, which accounted for US$3.4 million in domestic ticket sales. At Imax, those returns rank as the widest and highest-grossing opening weekend for an anime film.

Meanwhile, Gross rated Beast as having only a “fair opening” for the Friday-to-Sunday period, at least “for an action adventure film featuring a beast”.

The beast, in this case, is a huge rogue lion that pursues a recently widowed man (Idris Elba) and his daughters when they go on safari. Iceland’s Baltasar Kormakur directs.

Sony’s action-thriller Bullet Train, which topped the box office the last 2 weekends, slid to third at US$8 million. Brad Pitt plays a paid assassin on a train seemingly loaded with them.

In fourth place was the still high-flying Top Gun: Maverick, which took in a substantial US$5.9 million in its 13th week of release. The Tom Cruise vehicle has pulled in US$683 million in North America and another US$703 million overseas.

And in fifth, down 3 spots from last weekend, was Warner Bros’ animation DC League of Super-Pets, at US$5.8 million.

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August is typically a slower month at the box office, but with no big releases during the last fortnight, Gross said business has dropped more than normal, to roughly 40 per cent below August 2019, with not much of an uptick until October.

Rounding out last weekend’s top 10 were Thor: Love and Thunder (US$4 million); Nope (US$3.6 million); Minions: The Rise of Gru (US$3.5 million); Where the Crawdads Sing (US$3.2 million); and Bodies Bodies Bodies (US$2.4 million). AFP, REUTERS