Dragon Ball Super Tops Idris Elba Film

Idris Elba may go head-to-head with a lion in Beast, but the action flick was no match for the latest Dragon Ball movie at the North American box office this weekend. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero topped the charts in its first weekend in theaters, with $20.1 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates on Sunday. Beast, meanwhile, settled for a second-place debut with $11.6 million, the AP reports. Crunchyroll released Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero on 3,900 screens in North America, marking the widest-ever opening for an anime. The Toei Animation production was directed by Tetsuro Kodama, who had the support of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. The Dragon Ball universe is almost 40 years old, and includes manga, television shows, movies, games, and toys.

Beast, meanwhile, opened on 3,743 screens in North America. The film, directed by Baltasar Kormákur, stars Elba as a widowed father of two teenage girls, played by Iyana Halley and Leah Jeffries, who find themselves on the run from a bloodthirsty lion during a trip to South Africa. Including international showings, Beast has made $21.8 million. Elba has another film opening in theaters next weekend: George Miller's fantasy epic Three Thousand Years of Longing. The weekend overall saw about $77 million in North American ticket sales—up over 168% from the same weekend last year—bringing the year to date to $5.2 billion, according to Comscore. But the summer movie season continues a slowdown that may last deep into the fall.

Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, $20.1 million.
2. Beast, $11.6 million.
3. Bullet Train, $8 million.
4. Top Gun: Maverick, $5.9 million.
5. DC League of Super-Pets, $5.8 million.
6. Thor: Love and Thunder, $4 million.
7. Nope, $3.6 million.
8. Minions: The Rise of Gru, $3.5 million.
9. Where the Crawdads Sing, $3.2 million.
10. Bodies Bodies Bodies, $2.4 million.

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