‘Dog Man’ holds North America lead despite Super Bowl competition

Dog Man, a superhero comedy from Universal and DreamWorks based on popular kids’ novels, held its lead in North American theatres for a second straight weekend, earning an estimated US$13.7 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said on Sunday.

The animated movie, a spinoff from the best-selling Captain Underpants series of graphic novels, saw a sharp drop from its opening weekend take of US$36 million.

North American theatres generally fare poorly on the Sunday of the annual US Super Bowl football championship, but Dog Man has already more than recouped its estimated US$40 million production cost, according to Hollywood Reporter.

Second place for the Friday-through-Sunday period, with US$8.5 million in ticket sales, was new Sony release Heart Eyes.

The slasher flick, released just before Valentine’s Day, revolves around a killer who wears a heart-shaped mask as he targets couples on that normally romantic holiday. Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding and Jordan Brewster star.

Another new release, Universal’s action film Love Hurts, took in US$5.8 million to place third. Ke Huy Quan, who won a supporting actor Oscar in 2022 for his part in Everything Everywhere All at Once, plays a realtor with a violent past who learns his brother is hunting him down.

Disney animation Mufasa: The Lion King came in fourth, at US$3.9 million. With global ticket sales totalling US$670 million, analysts say the film seems sure to make it past the US$700 million mark worldwide.

And in fifth place, down three spots from last weekend, was Companion, a sci-fi satire from Warner Bros and New Line, at US$3.02 million.

Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher star in the tale about a weekend getaway that gets crazy when a group of friends learn that one guest is a “companion robot”.

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Rounding out the top 10 were:

• One of Them Days (US$3 million)
• Becoming Led Zeppelin (US$2.6 million)
• Flight Risk (US$2.6 million)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (US$1.8 million)
• Moana 2 (US$1.5 million).