‘Garfield’ tops N. American box office, ‘Furiosa’ fades

“The Garfield Movie” triumphed at the
North American box office in its second week of release, as “Furiosa: A Mad
Max Saga’ faded to third place, industry estimates showed Sunday.

“Garfield” and “Furiosa” had battled for the top spot during the long
Memorial Day weekend, and ultimately, the “Mad Max” prequel starring Anya
Taylor-Joy prevailed.

But this week, Sony’s animated reboot about the lazy cat who loves lasagna,
starring Chris Pratt (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) as the orange feline, was
expected to win with $14 million in ticket sales, Exhibitor Relations said.

Bouncing back up to second place was Paramount’s animated “If,” which stars
Cailey Fleming as a young girl who, along with neighbor Ryan Reynolds,
embarks on an adventure to reconnect forgotten made-up playmates with their
children.

“If” took in $10.8 million, just ahead of Warner Bros’ “Furiosa” — the fifth
installment in Australian director George Miller’s “Mad Max” post-apocalyptic
action series — at $10.75 million.

Fourth place again went to 20th Century action sci-fi “Kingdom of the Planet
of the Apes,” at $8.8 million, and in fifth was Universal’s action-comedy
“The Fall Guy,” starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, with $4.2 million.

Overall, the May domestic box office was down 43.3 percent as compared with
the pre-pandemic average for the month in 2017-2019, according to industry
analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“The Strangers: Chapter 1” ($3.6 million)

“Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle” ($3.5 million)

“In a Violent Nature” ($2.1 million)

“Ezra” ($1.2 million)

“Summer Camp” ($1.1 million) (BSS/AFP)