‘Fantastic Four’ wins battle of heroes at North American box office

[LOS ANGELES] The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Disney’s hotly anticipated reboot of the Marvel Comics superhero franchise, conquered the North American weekend box office, earning US$118 million and sidelining Superman, industry estimates showed on Sunday.

Fantastic Four - starring actor-of-the-moment Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Emmy winner Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) - tells the story of a team of heroes trying to save a retro-futuristic world from the evil Galactus.

“This is an outstanding opening,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “Fantastic Four was a modest and struggling superhero series; it just caught up with the biggest and the best.”

Superman, the latest big-budget action film featuring the iconic superhero from Warner Bros. and DC Studios, slipped to second place at US$24.9 million, Exhibitor Relations said.

That puts the global take of the film, starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, over the US$500 million mark.

Jurassic World: Rebirth - the latest installment in the blockbuster dinosaur saga - finished in third place at US$13 million. Its worldwide total stands at US$672.5 million.

The Universal film, starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, takes viewers to an abandoned island research facility, where secrets - and genetically mutated dinosaurs - are lurking.

F1: The Movie, the Apple and Warner Bros flick starring Brad Pitt as a washed-up Formula One driver who gets one last shot at redemption, moved up to fourth place at US$6.2 million.

Smurfs, the latest film featuring the adorable blue creatures and starring Rihanna as Smurfette, slipped to fifth place in only its second week in theatres with US$5.4 million in North American ticket sales.

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“The box office is on an excellent run that started two weeks ago,” Gross said.

“These are not the good old days, but Fantastic Four and Superman are performing extremely well. Superheroes are showing some swagger, and it’s good news for the industry.”

Rounding out the top 10 were:

I Know What You Did Last Summer (US$5.1 million)

How to Train Your Dragon (US$2.8 million)

Eddington (US$1.7 million)

Saiyaara (US$1.3 million)

Oh, Hi! (US$1.1 million). AFP