American film company Paramount's new film "Transformers: The Last Knight" nabbed the top spot at the North American box office with an over 690-million U.S. dollar debut.
The fifth installment in the series, directed by Michael Bay, brought in an estimated 45.3 million U.S. dollars in North America Friday through Sunday and a five-day total of 691 million U.S. dollars since its opening last Wednesday, according to studio figures collected by comScore.
"The Last Knight", which Paramount says cost about 217 million U.S. dollars to make before a major marketing spend, remains the lowest grossing opening in North America for the "Transformers" series through five films. It's the first "Transformers" film not to open to 100 million U.S. dollars or more in North America over a debut weekend. The previous installment, "Age of Extinction," made well over 100 million U.S. dollars in 2014.
The projected international Cume through Sunday is 196 million U.S. dollars, including over 123 million in China alone. The franchise started its run 10 years ago and has generated 3.8 billion U.S. dollars in global box office across the first four films and with an average of about 65 percent of the box office earned in the international markets.
In a tie for second place, Warner Bros.' "Wonder Woman" and Pixar's "Cars 3" both reported 25.175 million U.S. dollars for the weekend.
Patty Jenkins' "Wonder Woman" continued its strong performance in box office, becoming the top-grossing live-action film directed by a woman. The latest DC Comics superhero movie brought in over 300 million U.S. dollars in total in North America through Sunday and 652.9 million U.S. dollars worldwide.
"Cars 3" has earned 99.9 million after just 10 days in theaters in North America. The computer-animated comedy film reported an early worldwide total of 141.3 million to date.
Entertainment Studios' shark tale "47 Meters Down" placed fourth with an estimated 7.43 million U.S. dollars in its second weekend. Lionsgate's "All Eyez On Me" finished fifth with an estimated 5.85 million U.S. dollars in the second weekend.
