Movies involving canine-human hybrids have not fared particularly well, lately. Last month, Universal Pictures’ newest take on Wolf Man earned just $10.5 million in its opening weekend, finishing third. In December, Werewolves suffered an even worse debut, earning a howlingly bad $1.1 million in its opening frame.
The key to keeping those sorts of movies from being … dogs? Make ‘em cute and cartoonish.
Dog Man, a PG film based on the graphic novel series by Dav Pilkey, had a tail-wag worthy debut this weekend. The movie dug up an estimated $36 million in North America. That’s a pretty healthy box-office bite and more than triple what its nearest competitor earned. The film’s overseas earnings are a little more tepid: It earned just $4.6 million in international markets to give the film a grand total of $40.6 million. But domestically, Dog Man is the multiplex’s best friend.
Another newcomer did reasonably well for itself, too. Companion took second place by banking $9.5 million stateside. It added $5.5 million overseas, too, pushing its one-weekend haul to an estimated $15 million.
The rest of the weekend was populated by holdovers. Mufasa: The Lion King earned $6.1 million to finish third. The Lion King prequel has now earned a tidy $229.5 million overall. One of them Days took home $6 million for fourth. And Flight Risk (last week’s No. 1 film) plummeted all the way to fifth with $5.6 million.
Looking way down the rest of the list, Valiant One had a hard time finding traction. It suffered a 17th place finish, earning just $725,000.
The post Movie Monday: ‘Dog Man’ Scampers to No. 1 appeared first on Plugged In.
