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Movie Monday: ‘Dog Man’ Scampers to No. 1

Movies involving canine-human hybrids have not fared particularly well, lately. Last month, Universal Pictures’ newest take on Wolf Man earned just $10.5 million in its opening weekend, finishing third. In December, Werewolves suffered an even worse debut, earning a howlingly bad $1.1 million in its opening frame.

The key to keeping those sorts of movies from being … dogs? Make ‘em cute and cartoonish.

Dog Man, a PG film based on the graphic novel series by Dav Pilkey, had a tail-wag worthy debut this weekend. The movie dug up an estimated $36 million in North America. That’s a pretty healthy box-office bite and more than triple what its nearest competitor earned. The film’s overseas earnings are a little more tepid: It earned just $4.6 million in international markets to give the film a grand total of $40.6 million. But domestically, Dog Man is the multiplex’s best friend.

Another newcomer did reasonably well for itself, too. Companion took second place by banking $9.5 million stateside. It added $5.5 million overseas, too, pushing its one-weekend haul to an estimated $15 million.

The rest of the weekend was populated by holdovers. Mufasa: The Lion King earned $6.1 million to finish third. The Lion King prequel has now earned a tidy $229.5 million overall. One of them Days took home $6 million for fourth. And Flight Risk (last week’s No. 1 film) plummeted all the way to fifth with $5.6 million.

Looking way down the rest of the list, Valiant One had a hard time finding traction. It suffered a 17th place finish, earning just $725,000.

paul-asay
Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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