DC League of Super-Pets Soaring To Top Spot at the Box Office in Opening Weekend

By Jamie Lovett

DC League of Super-Pets is taking flight and soaring to the top of the box office in its opening weekend. The animated feature film starring the voices of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Kevin Hart earned $9.3 million on Friday, including $2.2 million in previews, on its way to an opening weekend haul of $22-23 million. That is slightly lower than Warner Bros.' expectation for the film, which hovered around $25 million, and even lower than some other analyst projections, but word of mouth could elevate its total before the end of the weekend, especially since it scored an A- from CinemaScore, testing well with early audiences.

DC League of Super-Pets is fairing decently with critics. It has a 71% fresh score on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, enough to be considered "fresh" but not earning the "certified fresh" label. According to the site's critical consensus, "Although it never quite soars, DC League of Super-Pets is a more than satisfactory diversion for families in search of four-legged fun."

ComicBook.com spoke to director Jared Stern about getting the movie into theaters. He touched on the studio excitement around the idea of putting the Super-Pets onto the big screen.

"I was working already at Warner Bros. and with DC, and I knew of the Super-Pets. I smushed those two ideas together. That's the origin story of this perhaps origin story of our Super-Pets in our movie," Stern said. "And so from there, I knew that I wanted a bunch of pets in a Metropolis animal shelter and it made sense for there to be a dog, obviously, like Ace, and perhaps there could be a squirrel like Chip and a turtle like Merton. And so it just fit with pets that you could find in a Metropolis shelter as I was digging. I wish we could have used all of the great pets in the DC canon, there's a lot."

He continued, "We love the original Legion of Super-Pets like Comet and Beppo, but they're Superman-centric. We wanted to get into potential pets for the whole Justice League. Our origin story delves into rescue pets who need a home so we leaned into DC animals who'd make sense at a Metropolis shelter, and just maybe match up with our Justice League."

DC League of Super-Pets is now playing in theaters. The complete list of top 10 films at this weekend's box office follows.

1. DC League of Super-Pets

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(Photo: Warner Bros.)
  • Opening Weekend
  • Total: $23 million

Krypto the Super-Dog and Superman are inseparable best friends, sharing the same superpowers and fighting crime side by side in Metropolis. However, when the Man of Steel and the rest of the Justice League are kidnapped, Krypto must convince a ragtag group of animals to master their own newfound powers for a rescue mission.

Jared Stern directed DC League of Super-Pets and co-wrote the story with John Whittington. The movie's voices cast includes Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Vanessa Bayer, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna, Thomas Middleditch, Ben Schwartz, and Keanu Reeves.

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2. Nope

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(Photo: Universal Pictures)
  • Week Two
  • Weekend: $19 million
  • Total: $81 million

Two siblings who run a California horse ranch discover something wonderful and sinister in the skies above, while the owner of an adjacent theme park tries to profit from the mysterious, otherworldly phenomenon.

Jordan Peele directed Nope. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, and Brandon Perea.

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3.

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    (Photo: Marvel Studios)
  • Week Four
  • Weekend: $13.1 million
  • Total: $301.5 million

Thor embarks on a journey unlike anything he's ever faced -- a quest for inner peace. However, his retirement gets interrupted by Gorr the God Butcher, a galactic killer who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster, who -- to his surprise -- inexplicably wields his magical hammer. Together, they set out on a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher's vengeance.

Taika Waititi directed Thor: Love and Thunder from a script he co-wrote with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Waititi, Russell Crowe, and Natalie Portman

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4. Minions: The Rise of Gru

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    (Photo: UNIVERSAL PICTURES)
  • Week Five
  • Weekend: $11.36 million
  • Total: $320.8 million

In the 1970s, young Gru tries to join a group of supervillains called the Vicious 6 after they oust their leader -- the legendary fighter Wild Knuckles. When the interview turns disastrous, Gru and his Minions go on the run with the Vicious 6 hot on their tails. Luckily, he finds an unlikely source for guidance -- Wild Knuckles himself -- and soon discovers that even bad guys need a little help from their friends.

Kyle Balda directed Minions: The Rise of Gru. The film's voice cast includes Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Yeoh, RZA, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lucy Lawless, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, and Alan Arkin

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5. Top Gun: Maverick

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  • Week 10
  • Weekend: $8.5 million
  • Total: $650.4 million

After more than 30 years of service as one of the Navy's top aviators, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. Training a detachment of graduates for a special assignment, Maverick must confront the ghosts of his past and his deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who choose to fly it.

Joseph Kosinski directs Top Gun: Maverick from a screenplay written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie. The film stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer.

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6. Where the Crawdads Sing

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    (Photo: Sony Pictures)
  • Week Three
  • Weekend: $7.5 million
  • Total: $53.5 million

Abandoned as a girl, Kya raised herself in the dangerous marshlands of North Carolina. For years, rumors of the marsh girl haunted Barkley Cove, isolating the sharp and resilient Kya from her community. Drawn to two young men from town, she opens herself to a new and startling world. However, when one of them is found dead, Kya immediately becomes the main suspect. As the case unfolds, the verdict as to what happened becomes increasingly unclear, threatening to reveal many secrets.

Olivia Newman directed Where the Crawdads Sing from a screenplay by Lucy Alibar, based on the book of the same name written by Delia Owens. The film stars Daisy Edgar-Jones Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, Michael Hyatt, Sterling Macer, Jr., and David Strathairn.

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7. Elvis

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    (Photo: Warner Bros.)
  • Week Six
  • Weekend: $6 million
  • Total: $129.1 million

From his rise to fame to his unprecedented superstardom, rock 'n' roll icon Elvis Presley maintains a complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker, over the course of 20 years. Central to Presley's journey and happiness is one of the most influential people in his life -- Priscilla.

Baz Luhrmann directs Elvis from a screenplay he co-wrote with Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, and Jeremy Doner. The film stars Austin Butler as Elvis, with Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, Luke Bracey, Natasha Bassett, David Wenham, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Xavier Samuel, and Kodi Smit-McPhee

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8. The Black Phone

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    (Photo: Blumhouse / Universal Pictures)
  • Week Six
  • Weekend: $2.47 million
  • Total: $83 million

Finney Shaw is a shy but clever 13-year-old boy who's being held in a soundproof basement by a sadistic, masked killer. When a disconnected phone on the wall starts to ring, he soon discovers that he can hear the voices of the murderer's previous victims -- and they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn't happen to Finney.

Scott Derrickson directed The Black Phone from a screenplay he co-wrote with C. Robert Cargill, based on the 2004 short story by Joe Hill. The film stars Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone, and Ethan Hawke.

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9. Jurassic World Dominion

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  • Week Seven
  • Weekend: $2.05 million
  • Total: $369.4 million

Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, dinosaurs now live and hunt alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history's most fearsome creatures.

Colin Trevorrow directed Jurassic World Dominion from a screenplay he co-wrote with Emily Carmichael, based on a story by Trevorrow and Derek Connolly. The film stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, BD Wong, Omar Sy, Isabella Sermon, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Campbell Scott, Scott Haze, and Dichen Lachman.

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10. Vengeance

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(Photo: Focus Features)
  • Opening Weekend
  • Total: $1.6 million

A journalist and podcaster travels from New York City to Texas to investigate the death of a woman whom he hooked up with.

B. J. Novak directed Vengeance. He also stars, with Boyd Holbrook, Dove Cameron, Issa Rae, and Ashton Kutcher.

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