MCS - 'Super-Pets' are best in box-office show leading with $23M opening

DC League of Super-Pets ( NASDAQ: WBD ) was best in show at the box office over the weekend, though with a total that shows that calmer weeks are ahead in theaters as the nation prepares to go back to school.

The animated Warner Bros. entry drew $23M to log the best ticket sales domestically, displacing last week's champ Nope ( NASDAQ: CMCSA ), which fell off 58% (not atypical for horror films) to land at $18.5M.

And while it did end up in the top spot, a solid $23M instead of earlier-summer weekend-leading totals of $50M means the fairly expensive Super-Pets may have further to go to turn a profit for Warner Bros. ( WBD ).

Nope's $18.5M brings it to $80.6M cumulative, dampening hopes that it would outpace the more successful Us from director Jordan Peele. But Nope has yet to see its international launch, coming in a couple of weeks.

The No. 3 spot went to Thor: Love and Thunder ( DIS ), which added $13.1M to a cumulative total that has now surpassed $301.5M (past $662M worldwide), and the No. 4 spot was Minions: The Rise of Gru ( CMCSA ), adding $10.9M to a total of $320.4M domestic and $701.4M worldwide.

Meanwhile, still hanging in the top 5 after 10 weeks of release is Top Gun: Maverick ( NASDAQ: PARA ) ( PARAA ), which pulled $8.2M to stretch across the $650M cumulative mark. The year's biggest sensation has surpassed $1.32B worldwide, and it's now just a matter of days away from moving up on the all-time domestic grosses chart, from No. 9 now past Jurassic World ($653.4M cumulative), and likely past current No. 7 Titanic ($659.4M).

Still hoping to eke out some more revenues after July became the first $1B-plus revenue month at the movies since December 2019 are the theater owners, generally higher on Monday: AMC Entertainment ( NYSE: AMC ) +3.7% ; Cineworld ( OTCPK:CNNWF ) +5% ; Cinemark ( CNK ) -0.7% ; ( IMAX ) +0.4% ; Marcus ( MCS ) +0.2% ; Reading International ( RDI ) -1.7% ; Cineplex ( OTCPK:CPXGF ) +4.3% ; National CineMedia ( NCMI ) +5.1% .

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