(Los Angeles) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the latest installment of the ape science fiction saga, topped the North American box office for its first weekend in theaters, the specialized firm Exhibitor Relations.
With $56.5 million in revenue between Friday and Sunday, the film from 20th Century Studios achieved one of the best results of the year in American and Canadian cinemas.
“This is an excellent start to the 10th installment of an action film franchise,” said David Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research, adding that international revenues were “excellent.”
The story of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes place three centuries after the previous installment, War For The Planet Of The Apes, in a world now completely controlled by talking primates, while humans reduced to the wild survive on the fringes of civilization.
In second place, the action film The Fall Guy stumbled, achieving only half of its first weekend’s revenue in theaters, with just $13.7 million.
David Leitch’s feature film, loosely inspired by a 1980s television series (The Unknown Stuntman), shows Ryan Gosling as a seasoned stuntman who must recover from a serious injury sustained during filming in order to save an old conquest , played by the British Emily Blunt, a mysterious but very real threat.
Challengers, the tennis-based romance headlined by Zendaya, is once again in third place with $4.7 million. The 27-year-old American actress and singer plays a tennis prodigy at the center of a love triangle in this subversive drama, in which rivalry, friendship and love intertwine.
The horror film Tarot is in fourth place this week with $3.5 million, already exceeding its budget of eight million dollars in two weeks of release.
The feature film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire brings up the rear of the top 5, with $2.5 million. The immense reptile and the famous gorilla this time fight side by side.