In the latest weekend box office results, "The Meg" took a bite out of its competition, chewing up $44.5 million in theater receipts domestically and another $96.4 million over 42 foreign markets, according to Deadline.com.
"The Meg," which was made under the Flagship Entertainment joint venture formed by Warner Bros, China Media Capital and TVB, made a big splash in Asia, where China made up $50.3 million of the overseas take, Deadline.com reported.
The story of a 70-foot prehistoric megalodon shark released after being imprisoned under an icy barrier of hydrogen sulphide for centuries ranked No. 1 in 28 of the markets it opened in over the past week, Deadline.com said.
The better-than-expected showing made "The Meg" Warner Bros.'s best opening of the year, topping "Ready Player One's" $41.7 million first weekend and "Ocean's 8," which made $41.6 million in its opening weekend, according to The HuffPost.
It was good enough to take the top spot this past weekend from the Tom Cruise-driven "Mission: Impossible - Fallout," which made $20 million in its third weekend for a domestic total of $162 million, The HuffPost reported.
"It's just good popcorn entertainment that didn't take itself too seriously," Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.'s head of domestic distribution, told The HuffPost. He attributes the showing to the studio's marketing campaign, along with a non-competitive August debut.
"It's silly, it's fun, and it lets audiences have a good time," Goldstein added.
"BlacKKKlansman," the main competition for "The Meg" among debut movies, made $10.8 million at the box office over 1,500 locations, The HuffPost.com said. The website said it was the best showing for a Spike Lee movie in more than a decade.
"BlacKKKlansman" which won the Cannes Grand Prix, scored 97 percent on the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes.
"Theaters told us repeatedly over the weekend that audiences were applauding, laughing, emotional, and some in tears by the film," Focus Features' president of distribution Lisa Bunnell told The HuffPost. "Spike has been able to bring something to the conversation of America that people haven't been able to have."
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