Action film ‘Wrath of Man’ tops North American weekend box office

American film "Wrath of Man", a heist thriller starring Jason Statham, led ticket sales at the North American box office this weekend, starting this year's summer movie season.

According to studio figures collected by measurement firm Comscore, this MGM's R-rated film grossed 8.1 million US dollars from 2,875 theaters in North America after its debuts this weekend.

Unlike "Godzilla vs Kong" and Disney's "Raya and the Last Dragon", which generated about 94 million US dollars and 44 million US dollars respectively after being released for six and ten weeks, "Wrath of Man" was not available simultaneously on a streaming service or digital rental platform.

"Ticket buyers appear to be pleased with their purchase; the film has an 'A-' CinemaScore from moviegoers," the Variety magazine reported, adding even though critics were less impressed by the film, several reviewers pointed out that the action was fun to watch on the big screen.

Overseas, where Miramax is handling distribution, "Wrath of Man" took in 17.6 million US dollars to date. The movie opens wide in China on Monday.

After three weeks on the big screen, the Japanese anime film "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train", which dominated the box office list last weekend, slid to second place and pulled in 3 million US dollars. It made 39 million US dollars in the United Sates and more than 435 million US dollars globally.

Falling not far behind, the Warner Bros. video game adaptation "Mortal Kombat" landed in the No. 3 spot this weekend with 2.3 million US dollars. This movie generated 37.8 million US dollars in North America and 72 million US dollars worldwide so far.

"Godzilla vs Kong" came in only fourth place with 1.9 million US dollars but continued its significant journeys this week. The monster mashup took in 92 million US dollars in the United States till this weekend, and it was predicted to become the first pandemic-era movie to surpass 100 million US dollars at the domestic box office.

At the global box office, "Godzilla vs. Kong" has generated 422 million US dollars, surpassing revenues for its predecessor, the poorly reviewed and mega-budgeted "Godzilla: King of the Monsters", which was released in 2019 but tapped out with 386 million US dollars.

North America's summer movie season typically kicks off in the first weekend of May. This year, many theater owners hoped the season would ignite with superhero film "Black Widow" starring Scarlett Johansson, but this movie's debut was postponed from May 7 to July 9 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.