Dune stays atop North American box office

Los Angeles

Dune, the cinematic reboot of Frank Herbert's epic sci-fi novel, held off newcomer Last Night in Soho to keep the No 1 spot at North American theaters last weekend.

Dune, by Warner Bros, made US$15.5 million in its second weekend in the United States, according to estimates on Sunday (Oct 31) from Comscore. Boxoffice Pro, a website that tracks the industry, had forecast US$18.4 million.

Dune debuted simultaneously in North America and on WarnerMedia's HBO Max service - one of the last movies the studio has scheduled for such a dual release. Warner Bros is now planning a sequel to the film.

Starring Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya and Oscar Isaac, Dune follows a family in the distant future fighting for survival on a desert planet plagued by monstrous sandworms but also a valuable resource called spice. Globally, the film is nearing US$300 million in ticket sales.

The Halloween weekend is typically slow for moviegoing in the US, as people opt for costume parties and trick-or-treating, but Universal's well-timed horror flick Halloween Kills retained second place, taking in US$8.5 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period.

The follow-on to 2018's Halloween again stars Jamie Lee Curtis as the avenging Laurie Strode.

Sticking in third was United Artists' James Bond installment No Time to Die at US$7.8 million. Daniel Craig stars as suave spy 007 - for the last time, the studio said.

In what analysts deemed the weekend's biggest surprise, fourth place went to a Japanese anime movie with a head-scratching title: My Hero Academia: World Heroes Mission, at US$6.4 million.

The Funimation film is a sequel to My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising. And in fifth was Sony's superhero movie Venom: Let There Be Carnage, at US$5.8 million. Tom Hardy plays a journalist whose symbiotic link to an alien gives him superpowers.

Last Night in Soho, a mystery-horror film from Comcast Corp's Focus Features, generated US$4.16 million to tie for sixth place in its US and Canadian debut, Comscore estimated. It fell well short of estimates of US$8.3 million.

Last Night in Soho is about an aspiring fashion designer who is transported back to the 1960s.

The film stars Thomasin McKenzie as the designer and features Anya Taylor-Joy, who starred in the hit 2020 Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit. Up to 75 per cent of critics recommended the movie, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

The month of October, with about US$638 million in sales, knocked off July as the best month for North American theatres since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic last year.

Last month was jammed with big releases as numerous studios eased the backlog of films built up early in the pandemic. Several of those movies were geared to younger audiences who may be more comfortable visiting cinemas than older viewers.

The past five months, including October, have been the busiest for theatres since they reopened, according to Comscore data, and November may continue that trend given the slate of anticipated films such as Eternals from Walt Disney's Marvel Studios. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS