The sequel to ‘Paw Patrol’ dominated the weekend box office, surpassing its predecessor by almost double in its opening weekend earnings, while ‘Saw X’ claimed the second spot, outperforming recent films in the Saw franchise but falling short of their average opening weekend performance, as reported by Box Office Mojo.
‘PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie’ raked in a remarkable $23 million during its North American debut weekend, a significant improvement over the $13 million garnered by its 2021 predecessor, ‘PAW Patrol: The Movie.’ It’s worth noting that the earlier film also premiered on Paramount+ simultaneously.
‘Saw X’ generated approximately $18 million in revenue, marking a lower debut compared to the franchise’s average opening weekend of $23 million. Nevertheless, it fared better than the openings of the franchise’s 2021 and 2017 installments, as per Box Office Mojo data.
In the third position at the box office was ‘The Creator,’ a Gareth Edwards film depicting a war between humans and artificial intelligence, which earned $14 million.
Meanwhile, ‘The Nun 2,’ a horror film, secured the fourth place with just $4.7 million in its fourth weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. This comes after it held the top box office position for its initial three weekends in theaters.
An intriguing fact is that ‘Saw III’ boasted the highest opening weekend earnings among the ten films in the franchise, amassing $33.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo. ‘Saw X’ is poised to have the fourth-lowest opening weekend, following ‘Spiral’ (the ninth installment with $8.7 million), ‘Saw VI’ ($14 million), and ‘Jigsaw’ (the eighth installment with $16.6 million). The tenth installment is projected to open just behind the original ‘Saw,’ which earned $18.2 million during its debut in 2004.
Interestingly, although ‘Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie’ had a much stronger opening compared to ‘PAW Patrol: The Movie,’ both films, based on the animated kids’ TV show ‘PAW Patrol,’ have strikingly similar ratings from audiences and critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the original film received an 80% critics’ score and a 97% audience score, while the sequel, as of Sunday afternoon, has an 81% critics’ score and a 94% audience score.
Notable in the box office landscape is the impressive global gross of $231 million for ‘The Nun 2,’ with $76.7 million originating from domestic earnings, despite its slower performance in the fourth weekend. It lags behind 2018’s ‘The Nun,’ which earned $117 million in North America and a total of $366 million globally, according to data from Box Office Mojo.
