Transformers rise of the beast

UPDATED Sunday AM: After a Saturday of $19.3M, -25% from Friday, Paramount/Skydance/Hasbro’s $60.5M. This despite Sony Animation’s winning Saturday with $21.2M, +26% over Friday, for a second weekend of $55.4M. With a running cume of $225.5M, the sequel has already beaten the domestic take of the original 2018 Oscar-winning animated pic, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which did $190.2M. Still, at a -54% second weekend hold, that’s fantastic for a Marvel movie, after you consider a bulk of the Disney MCU titles have tumbled -60% to -70% in the post-pandemic era ( Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the exception of late with a -48% second weekend hold). What about the air quality in the Northeast? Did that throw a monkey-wrench into business? Possibly. The good news is that no theaters were forced to close. Rise of the Beasts overperformed in the West, South-central and Southeast, but under-indexed in the Northeast (the pic takes place in New York City). Canada drove 6.9% of the pic’s business, and the air quality issues there because of the wildfires may have impacted box office here as well. Major markets that over-indexed include L.A., Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, and San Antonio, while major markets that under-indexed include Boston, Denver, and Minneapolis. Top theaters came from L.A., Phoenix, Atlanta, NY, Baltimore, Atlanta, Fresno, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Austin, and Miami. Global start for Rise of the Beasts at $170.5M, with $40M coming from China. “R...