‘Wakanda’ stays atop N. America box office for fourth week

LOS ANGELES, Dec 5 — Black Panther: Wakanda Forever saw weekend ticket sales drop to an estimated US$17.6 million (RM77.2 million) but still extended its rule of the North American box office for a fourth week, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Sunday.

The Disney/Marvel sequel had taken in nearly US$46 million for the previous Friday-through-Sunday period. Still, its domestic total has now reached an impressive US$393.7 million on top of US$339 million in international ticket sales.

Universal’s new holiday-timed Violent Night placed second for the weekend at US$13.3 million, “a solid opening for an action comedy,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.

David Harbour of Stranger Things fame stars as a cranky, sledgehammer-wielding Santa who comes to the rescue when bad guys invade a rich family’s home on Christmas Eve. Gross said the film should play well until the December 16 release of much-anticipated Avatar: The Way of Water.

Disney’s computer-animated sci-fi film Strange World claimed third place while taking in just US$4.9 million. Given its US$180 million production budget, “the movie could lose more than US$100 million,” according to HollywoodReporter.com.

In fourth was Searchlight’s horror-comedy The Menu, at US$3.6 million. Ralph Fiennes plays a celebrity chef who serves up some dark surprises.

And in fifth was Sony’s Devotion, an action movie about two US fighter pilots during the Korean War, at US$2.8 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

I Heard the Bells (US$1.8 million)

Black Adam (US$1.7 million)

The Fabelmans (US$1.3 million)

Bones and All (US$1.2 million)

Ticket to Paradise (US$850,000)

— AFP