Uncharted stays on top as Spider-Man nears US$800m mark

Los Angeles

IT'S (still) good to be Tom Holland. The 25-year-old actor has been all-but-singlehandedly propelling ticket sales at North American movie theatres, leading 2 films in the top 3 spots on the box office charts.

Over the weekend, his action-adventure Uncharted repeated No 1 as his comic book epic Spider-Man: No Way Home followed closely behind in third place.

Uncharted, Sony's long-in-the-works video game adaptation, brought in US$23.2 million from 4,275 domestic venues in its second weekend of release, representing a 46 per cent decline in revenues from its opening. That brings its domestic total to US$83.3 million.

A drop around 50 per cent is standard for big-budget tentpoles, but making its hold a little more impressive, the film did not enjoy the rapturous reviews that greeted Spider-Man: No Way Home.

It helps that Uncharted is based on an extremely popular video game series and caters to younger males, a demographic that has been reliably going to the movies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, another Sony blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home took the No 3 spot with US$5.7 million from 3,002 North American cinemas, sliding only 23 per cent in its 11th weekend of release. Since debuting on the big screen in December, the Spidey threequel has managed to stay in the top 3 on domestic box office charts - a rare feat with or without an industry-altering pandemic.

Through Sunday (Feb 27), No Way Home has collected an enormous US$779.8 million in total. Given the movie's stellar week-to-week holds, Spider-Man could soon become the third movie ever to cross US$800 million at the domestic box office.

In second place, Channing Tatum's PG-13 canine adventure Dog had surprisingly solid attendance levels in its sophomore outing. The road-trip buddy comedy, from MGM, earned US$10.1 million from 3,827 screens over the weekend, pushing its North American tally to US$30.8 million.

Two new releases, Studio 666 and Cyrano, failed to make a notable dent on box office charts.

Studio 666, a horror-comedy-musical-fantasy about Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and his bandmates as they attempt to record their 10th studio album, landed in eighth place with US$1.5 million from 2,306 North American cinemas.

Cyrano, a romantic musical drama directed by Joe Wright and starring Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage, nabbed the No 9 spot. The well-reviewed film, based on the 2018 stage musical and Edmond Rostand's 1987 play Cyrano de Bergerac about an emotionally crushing love triangle, opened in just 797 locations and grossed US$1.4 million. REUTERS