Riding terrific reviews and a strong word-of-mouth, the role playing game adaptation Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves opened with $38.5 million in US and Canadian movie theaters over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, stealing the top box-office perch from John Wick: Chapter 4. The Paramount Pictures and eOne release appealed to more moviegoers than many expected a film based on a notoriously niche table top game to interest, the AP reports. Game Night directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley turned in a rollicking comic action-adventure, with a cast including Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, and Hugh Grant. Audiences gave Honor Among Thieves, which launched with a raucous opening-night premiere at SXSW, an A- CinemaScore. It scored 91% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Dungeons & Dragons was a big roll of the dice. The film, coproduced and cofinanced by Paramount with eOne, which is owned by Hasbro, cost $150 million to make. With a production cost like that, Dungeons & Dragons will need sustained sales through April and similar success overseas to potentially start a new franchise. It launched internationally with $33 million. There was little competition this weekend from new releases. The Christian drama His Only Son debuted with $5.3 million. AV Rockwell's Sundance Film Festival grand jury prize winner A Thousand and One, about a mother who kidnaps her son from foster care, opened with $1.8 million at 926 theaters for Focus Features.
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
1.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, $38.5 million.
2
. John Wick, Chapter 4, $28.2 million.
3.
Scream VI, $5.3 million.
His Only Son, $5.3 million. (Tie)
5.
Creed III, $5 million.
6.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods, $4.7 million.
7.
A Thousand and One, $1.8 million.
8.
65, $1.6 million.
9.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, $1.2 million.
10.
Jesus Revolution, $1 million.
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