Skyscraper gets rocky start as Hotel Transylvania 3 checks in at No.1
It turns out Dwayne Johnson is no match for Dracula and company.
Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation topped the North American box-office charts with US$44.1 million (S$60 million), while Johnson's Skyscraper scraped in with a paltry US$25.5 million.
Sony's animated family feature picked up US$46.4 million overseas the past weekend for a global start of US$100 million.
The third instalment of the franchise - featuring the voices of Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg and Kathryn Hahn - had a US$80 million production budget.
"We are thrilled," Sony's president of worldwide distribution Josh Greenstein said.
"We took the No. 1 slot this weekend with a tremendous amount of competition."
Hotel Transylvania 3 is the first film in the series debuting during summer (its predecessors opened in September).
Skyscraper's debut was not enough to secure the No. 2 slot, which went to the second weekend of Marvel's Ant-Man And The Wasp with US$29.5 million.
The superhero sequel picked up another US$35.3 million internationally, taking its global total to US$284 million.
Skyscraper checked in third place, coming in way under projections and representing the lowest opening for a Johnson-starrer in recent years.
Movie studio Universal is banking on his massive international following to justify the film's pricey US$125 million budget. It opens in China this weekend.- REUTERS
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now