‘Bad Guys’ Dethrones ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ In North American Box Office

Three new releases helped fuel the North American box office this weekend, with Universal´s animated action-comedy The Bad Guys on top with an estimated $24 million scoop.

Bad Guys, a sort of animal-eye version of Oceans 11, follows the exploits of a wickedly clever gang of creatures.

Produced by DreamWorks Animation, the film has a voice cast including Sam Rockwell, Craig Robinson, Awkwafina, Marc Ramon, Anthony Ramos, and Lilly Singh.

Overall, this was a good weekend for family-geared films, hit harder by the Covid effect than films targeting other demographics, with Paramount´s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 again placing second, at $15.2 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period.

The third spot went to Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore from Warner Bros., at $14 million, a fairly sharp drop from last weekend´s $43 million opening for the Wizarding World film.

New releases claimed the next two spots.

The Northman from Focus Features took in $12 million. It tells the blood-soaked story of a Viking (played by a ripped Alexander Skarsgard) who seeks revenge on the man who killed his parents and usurped his father´s throne.

And in fifth was Lionsgate´s very meta film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent at $7.2 million. Nicolas Cage plays, none too seriously, a man named Nick Cage.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

Everything Everywhere All at Once ($5.4 million)

The Lost City ($4.4 million)

Father Stu ($3.3 million)

Morbius ($2.3 million)

Ambulance ($1.8 million)