Sep 6, 2022

'Super Pets,' 'Minions,' and 'Dragon Ball' Round Out Top 10 at Labor Day Weekend Box Office

Three animated films entered the top ten at the North American box office over Labor Day weekend: "DC League of Super-Pets," "Minions: DC League of Super-Pets," "Minions/Gru strikes back," and "Dragon Ball Super/Superheroes.

While the strong performance of the animated features is cause for celebration, the fact that both films are in the top 10 despite being in their sixth and tenth weeks for "Super-Pets" and "Minions," respectively, raises general concerns about the overall box office situation.

Distributors and box office companies are still struggling to recover from the Covid-19 period, and the number of films offered to audiences is far below pre-pandemic levels.In the summer of 2019, 42 feature films were released in US cinemas. This summer, that number dropped by 48%, with 22 films being released. The next few months are likely to be quite barren for moviegoers.

And things are even worse for animation. Between the July 29 release of "Super Pets" and Disney's November 23 release of "Strange Worlds," North American movie theaters will experience a historic gap of nearly four months without a major theatrical animated feature from a major U.S. studio. Looking back over the 10 years of animated feature releases prior to Covid-19, cataloged by film historian Jerry Beck, during that time, movie theaters never saw a gap of more than three months from a major studio release. Even during that period, there were plenty of indie films to keep audiences buying popcorn.

DOMESTIC

Warner's "DC League of Super-Pets," despite opening in 169 theaters, was fourth for the three-day weekend with an estimated $5 million, up 21.9% from last week's box office. It grossed an additional $1.3 million on Labor Day, bringing its overall box office to $81.7 million. The film's box office performance was likely boosted by Saturday's National Cinema Day special and an audience that had Monday off from work, but the film has proven to have four strong legs since its release six weeks ago.

In its 10th week in North American cinemas, "Minions": The Rise of Gru entered the top 10 with an estimated $4.5 million in ticket sales over the long vacation weekend.

Crunchyroll's largest theatrical release, "Dragon Ball Super (Superhero)," continues to pay dividends for the Sony-owned animation distributor. With an estimated box office of $2.9 million over the holidays, the film brought its North American total to $35.4 million, passing "Jutsu Kaiten 0" ($34.5 million) for fourth place all-time among animated feature films.

Global

Minions The Rise of Gru was the second highest-grossing film worldwide over the weekend, bringing its worldwide total to $12 million. The illuminated film has now grossed $890 million worldwide.

"DC League of Super-Pets" was No. 4 worldwide, grossing $9.5 million worldwide over the weekend and bringing its worldwide total to $159.5 million. Meanwhile, "Super Hero" was sixth worldwide with $6.7 million, although Comscore has not yet factored Japanese ticket sales into this total; Super Hero's worldwide total is currently $60.6 million.