“DC League of Super-Pets,” an animated family film from Warner Bros., topped a weaker North American box office this weekend, as the major summer moviegoing season starts to draw to a close.
“Super-Pets” made $23 million in its opening weekend across 4,314 domestic cinemas, according to an estimate from Comscore Inc. on Sunday. That’s lower than Box Office Pro’s forecast of $26 million to $39 million.
“Nope,” a Universal Pictures horror film directed by Jordan Peele, slid to second place, selling $18.6 million worth of tickets, Comscore estimated. Box Office Pro forecast the top 10 movies together would take in 10% to 20% less than the $124 million they made a week earlier.
“DC League of Super-Pets” is based on the DC Comics series. It follows crime-fighting pets, including a dog owned by Superman, and stars Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. The movie has mostly positive critical reviews, with a 71% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The performance of “Super-Pets” is middling for a pandemic family film. It had far weaker openings than both “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” distributed by Universal, and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” a Paramount Pictures movie. But it outperformed another Paramount film: “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank,” which made $6.3 million in its domestic opening earlier in July.
After Sony Corp. releases the Brad Pitt-led action film “Bullet Train” next week, the release schedule for big-budget movies is expected to slow until later in 2022.
