‘Dragon Ball’ Tops ‘Beast’ With $11 Million Friday

I guess it’s good news that the weekend’s top two movies are both new releases, which hasn’t happened all that much even amid the current summer movie season. The top earner on Friday was Crunchy Roll’s domestic debut for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. The next installment in the ongoing Japanese anime property earned $10.745 million on Friday, with a whopping $4 million coming from Thursday previews. So we’re looking at Twilight Saga/Harry Potter-level frontloading and a likely $21.5 million opening weekend gross. It is the widest anime release ever, with the most significant (IMAX, Dolby, etc.) PLF footprint. This will be the first time an anime flick will top the domestic weekend box office since Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back opened with $31 million over the Fri-Sun part of a $50.7 million Wed-Sun debut in November of 1999.

Demon Slayer The Movie topped its first Friday in April of 2021, but Mortal Kombat barely won the weekend $23 million to $21 million. Dragon Ball Super: Broly topped on Wednesday and Thursday of its opening weekend in January 2019 before falling to fourth over the weekend against M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass. My kids never got into it, so I’d fail a Dragon Ball Z test even harder than a Demon Slayer pop quiz. The relative success of this newest Dragon Ball flick is another example of comparatively niche releases like (varying quality notwithstanding) Christmas with the Chosen, RRR, Demon Slayer and BTS Permission to Dance on Stage. They play to relatively small but unquestionably committed audiences who damn well show up. It’ll be lucky to top $40 million overall, but that’s money theaters desperately need right now.

In a more crowded theatrical slate, a modest, star-driven, high-concept, programmer like Beast would be welcome counterprogramming to the last seasonal tentpoles. The $36 million survival actioner earned $4.27 million on Friday for a likely $10.15 million weekend. The film delivers on its ‘Idris Elba fights a lion’ marketing promises. Moreover, it’s opening pretty well for a modern Idris Elba vehicle. Elba is one of those respected thespians who gets fan-casted for every significant franchise (quick… name three other Black actors) but isn’t much of an opener outside of an ensemble flick like Takers, Obsessed and Hobbs & Shaw. His two-hander with Taraji P. Henson, No Good Deed, which opened in 2014 with $24 million, may be an exception. However, Henson’s solo rom-com What Men Want pulled $18 million in 2019 sans a major male co-star. Not every talented actor is a butts-in-seats star.

Anyway, the Will Packer production comes courtesy of Universal, and they (along with Focus) are the one studio, by default, that is doing their part to help theaters survive into November. I wish they’d move Ticket to Paradise from October 21 to anywhere between now and mid-September. Nonetheless, they are offering Bros, Honk for Jesus Save Your Soul, Beast and the above-noted George Clooney/Julia Roberts rom-com over the next two months. I’m puzzled by Beast’s B Cinemascore grade since it’s precisely what’s on the poster and ends on a high note, but I digress. I’d expect halfway decent legs before becoming a popular PVOD title. Elba’s other summer entry, George Miller’s delightful and charming Three Thousand Years of Longing, co-starring Tilda Swinton, opens next week. It’s another chance for you fancasters to put up or shut up.

Despite primarily being advertised as a Paramount+ original, Paramount opened Orphan: First Kill in 498 theaters yesterday. It’s a surprisingly good horror prequel, starring now-25-years old Isabelle Fuhrman as a younger version of the title character she played in 2009 when she was 12. It finds a clever way to offer something new and deal with the whole “Okay, we saw the first film and know the big twist, now what?” problem that can plague franchise extensions for high-concept hits. The film earned $670,000 on Friday for a likely $1.555 million opening weekend. The theatrical release is arguably about building awareness for its current PVOD release and its eventual VOD/DVD afterlife. Chris Pine’s The Contractor was mostly a VOD title but was among the few such offerings to stick around in the various VOD charts alongside the theatrical biggies.