CNNWF - 'Nope' opens to $44M biggest original debut of pandemic film era

Nope ( NASDAQ: CMCSA ) led the domestic box office over the weekend, striking a blow for original films and building some power for its brand-name director Jordan Peele.

The mysterious horror/sci-fi mashup opened to $44M, which fell short of the surprising $71M drawn in by Peele's second film, Us. But the take was the most for any film based on original property since Us, three long years ago.

It is Peele's most expensive film, and so it will need a longer life to recoup costs, even though horror films tend to fade faster than others after their openings.

Nope's ( CMCSA ) $44M topped the third-week take from Thor: Love and Thunder ( NYSE: DIS ), which drew $22.1M after shedding just over half of last week's business, and a fourth week from Minions: The Rise of Gru ( CMCSA ), which pulled $17.7M.

The Minions prequel has now stacked up $297.9M domestically and $640.3M on a worldwide basis; the Thor sequel has $276.2M cumulative domestic and $598.2M worldwide.

On the Top Gun: Maverick ( NASDAQ: PARA ) ( PARAA ) watch - it was the No. 5 film in its ninth week of release, it's still the year's biggest film, and it still has the ninth-biggest domestic gross of all time, now at $635.6M, behind Jurassic World's $653.4M.

As always, counting all the cash registers are movie exhibitors: AMC Entertainment ( NYSE: AMC ); Cineworld (OTCPK:CNNWF); Cinemark ( CNK ); ( IMAX ); Marcus ( MCS ); Reading International ( RDI ); Cineplex (OTCPK:CPXGF); National CineMedia ( NCMI ).

For further details see: