North America (Reuters)

It’s (still) good to be Tom Holland.

The 25-year-old actor has been all-but-singlehandedly propelling ticket sales at North American movie theaters, leading two films in the top three spots on domestic box office charts. Over the weekend, his action-adventure Uncharted repeated #1 as his comic book epic Spider-Man: No Way Home followed closely behind in third place.

Uncharted, Sony’s long-in-the-works video game adaptation, brought in $23.2 million from 4,275 domestic venues in its second weekend of release, representing a 46 per cent decline in revenues from its opening. That brings its domestic total to $83.3 million. A drop around 50 per cent is standard for big-budget tentpoles, but making its hold a little more impressive, the film did not enjoy the rapturous reviews that greeted Spider-Man: No Way Home. It helps that Uncharted is based on an extremely popular video game series and caters to younger males, a demographic that has been reliably going to the movies during COVID-19.

Meanwhile, another Sony blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home took the #3 spot with US$5.7 million from 3,002 North American theaters, sliding only 23 per cent in its 11th weekend in theaters. Since debuting on the big screen in December, the Spidey threequel has managed to stay in the top three on domestic box office charts – a rare feat with or without an industry-altering pandemic. Through Sunday (February 27), No Way Home has collected an enormous US$779.8 million in total. Given the movie’s stellar week-to-week holds, Spider-Man could soon become the third movie ever to cross US$800 million at the domestic box office.

In second place, Channing Tatum’s PG-13 canine adventure Dog had surprisingly solid attendance levels in its sophomore outing. The road-trip buddy comedy, from MGM, earned US$10.1 million from 3,827 screens over the weekend, pushing its North American tally to US$30.8 million. It’s a strong result for a movie that carries a US$15 million production budget. The movie, which was smartly marketed with the tagline “Don’t worry, the dog doesn’t die” in an attempt to win over anyone still reeling from the 2008 tear-jerker Marley and Me, continues to perform in America’s heartland. Midwestern and small-town cities have been leading ticket sales over west and east coast cities and other major domestic markets.

Two new releases, Studio 666 and Cyrano, failed to make a notable dent on box office charts.

Studio 666, a horror-comedy-musical-fantasy about Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and his bandmates as they attempt to record their 10th studio album, landed in eighth place with US$1.5 million from 2,306 North American theaters. The R-rated film got mixed reviews, though several film critics admitted Studio 666 is at least fun to watch. Associated Press critic Jake Coyle liked the film to “a decent SNL sketch stretched to nearly two hours” and the New York Times critic at large Wesley Morris aptly described the movie as exuding “real ‘Scooby-Doo’-meets-‘The Shining’ vibes.”

David A Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, called Studio 666 an original oddity, one that was built around Dave Grohl’s and the Foo Fighters band’s popularity. “This is a weak opening, he said, noting “there aren’t many horror comedies in general” at the box office.

Cyrano, a romantic musical drama directed by Joe Wright and starring Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage, nabbed the #9 spot. The well-reviewed film, based on the 2018 stage musical and Edmond Rostand’s 1987 play Cyrano de Bergerac about an emotionally crushing love triangle, opened in just 797 locations and grossed US$1.4 million. Nearly 60 per cent of opening weekend audience members were female, according to exit polls. MGM will continue to expand the movie’s theatrical footprint in the coming weeks, but given its $30 million production budget, the profit margins for Cyrano could be more brutal than heartbreak.