'Bad Guys' stay on top of N America box office
Universal's animated action-comedy "The Bad Guys" again topped the North American box office this weekend, with an estimated take of US$16.1 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported on Sunday. "Bad Guys," a sort of animal-centric version of "Oceans 11", benefited from a relatively quiet moviegoing weekend, with the next big superhero film – Disney's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" – opening next Friday. A DreamWorks Animation production, "Bad Guys" has a voice cast including Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Anthony Ramos and Lilly Singh. Paramount's family-friendly "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" once again placed second for the Friday-through-Sunday period, taking in US$11.4 million. Its four-week domestic total of US$160.9 million has surpassed the US$148 million of the original "Sonic" – a rare feat for a pandemic-era film. Warner Bros' "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" maintained its third place, taking in US$8.3 million. To date it is the lowest grossing of the "Harry Potter" linked films. Fourth spot again went to "The Northman" from Focus Features, at US$6.3 million. The blood-soaked Viking tale stars Alexander Skarsgard. And in fifth, up one spot from last week, was "Everything Everywhere All at Once", at US$5.5 million. Michelle Yeoh stars in the genre-bending film as a beleaguered laundromat owner who is called on to save the world – or worlds. "April was another good month at the domestic box office," said David A Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research, adding that the past two months showed "enormous improvement" over last summer's miserable pandemic-scarred numbers. (AFP)