Anime fans have a fantasy “Who would win in a fight?” Likes to argue about. Dragon Ball (Goku vs. Superman, Vegeta vs. Harry Potter, Krillin vs. any regular guy, and now we’ve got another definitive win for the record books: Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, the latest movie in the Dragon Ball saga, this weekend with Idris Elba -starrer Beast nearly doubled at the box office.This was the debut (at least in the U.S.) for both films, with Super Hero grossing $20 million and Beast $11 million.
To be clear: We’re not talking ridiculous numbers here, as neither film has done incredibly well, but the success of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero—and the success of other anime movies playing in limited theaters these days—speaks to domestic change. More appetite for box office and what would have been considered “too niche” or whatever in the pre-Saathi days.
The rest of the top 10 (really the rest of the top 11) are in the same order as last week, with all 10 movies grossing over a million dollars and so doing… well. (Things are generally still down from where they were before this summer.) Top Gun: Maverick seems to be in a permanent slump again, sitting at $683 million after 13 weeks, which means it’ll probably fall short of the $700 crack. And Black Panther ranks among the highest grossers of all time. But hey, sixth place is good! It grossed more than three Avengers movies and 10 Star Wars movies (Rogue One and Solo).
The only high-profile newcomer on the list that doesn’t include Idris Elba or Piccolo is Orphan: First Kill , which opened in 12th place with $1.6 million. It should grow more next week, since it only opened in 500 or so theaters, but that’s assuming people are still interested in seeing a grown woman who looks like a kid commit some murder.