Piccolo and Dragon Ball beat Idris Elba and Beast at the weekend box office
Idris Elba just wasn't ready for the Special Beam Cannon, apparently
Anime fans love to argue about hypothetical “who would win in a fight?” battles involving the characters from Dragon Ball (Goku vs. Superman, Vegeta vs. Harry Potter, Krillin vs. any regular person), and now we’ve got another confirmed victory for the record books: Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, the latest movie in the Dragon Ball saga, nearly doubled the box office take of the Idris Elba-starring Beast this weekend. This was the debut for both movies (at least in the U.S.), with Super Hero making $20 million and Beast making $11 million.
To be clear: We’re not talking ridiculous numbers here, as neither movie did unbelievably well, but Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’s success—and the success of other anime movies getting limited theatrical runs these days—speaks to a change in the domestic box office and a greater appetite for things that might’ve been deemed “too niche” or whatever in the pre-pandemic days.
The rest of the top 10 (really the rest of the top 11) is in the exact same order as last week, with all 10 movies making over a million dollars and therefore doing… okay. (Things in general are still down from where they were earlier this summer.) Top Gun: Maverick seems to have permanently slowed down again, sitting at a total gross of $683 million after 13 weeks, which means it probably will fall short of cracking $700 and taking Black Panther’s place on the list of top grosses of all time. But hey, sixth place is good! It made more money than three Avengers movies and 10 Star Wars movies (counting Rogue One and Solo).
The only high-profile newcomer on the list that doesn’t involve Idris Elba or Piccolo is Orphan: First Kill, which opened in 12th place with $1.6 million. It should go higher next week, since it only opened in 500 or so theaters, but that’s assuming people are still interested in seeing an adult woman who looks like a kid doing some murders.
Here’s the full top 10 list (from Box Office Mojo) for people who want to see last week’s list with two extra movies.
- Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero
- Beast
- Bullet Train
- Top Gun: Maverick
- DC League Of Super-Pets
- Thor: Love And Thunder
- Nope
- Minions: The Rise Of Gru
- Where The Crawdads Sing
- Bodies Bodies Bodies