Rise Of The Beasts squeaks past Across The Spider-Verse in a box office nail-biter

As Bumblebee might say with his radio-talking in a very on-the-nose needle drop ahead of the big fight scene, “don’t call it a comeback, I been here for years.” Yes, in a domestic box office upset, Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts has taken out Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse after a heated battle for top spot of the weekend box office. The Transformers movie—the seventh live-action film in the series—out-debuted the last two films in that franchise, the pretty good Bumblebee ($21 million) and the horrible The Last Knight ($44 million), with $60 million. That was enough to barely beat Across The Spider-Verse, made $55 million in its second week and already has a total of $225 million. (It won this week, but Paramount will be throwing a parade if Rise Of The Beasts can meet that total.)

Speaking of things just barely beating other things: The Little Mermaid’s total after three weeks is just a few million ahead of Across The Spider-Verse, and it only added $22 million to that total this week (still a lot, but it’s all relative). Finishing out the top five are Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 ($7 million this week, $335 million after six weeks) and The Boogeyman ($6 million this week, $24 million after two).

The bottom half of the top 10 doesn’t have any newcomers, but it does have Fast X and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, both of which you can rent at home now and both of which made fairly good money despite that (Fast X made $5 million in its fourth week, Mario made $2 million in its 10th week). After that we have About My Father, The Machine, and Past Lives (in a small rollout with only 26 screens).

The full top 10 is below, thanks to Box Office Mojo.

• Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts
• Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
• The Little Mermaid
• Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3
• The Boogeyman
• Fast X
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie
• About My Father
• The Machine
• Past Lives