After last week’s massive Thor: Love and Thunder opening, this weekend will be quieter at the box office with drama Where the Crawdads Sing and animated film Paws of Fury as the two new nationwide entries with Thor expected to keep the No. 1 spot.
On Thursday night, Sony and 3000 Pictures’ Crawdads took in an impressive $2.3 million from 3,150 locations. The movie is eyeing an opening of around $10 million. Based on the New York Times best-seller, Crawdads stars Normal People breakout Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kya Clark, a young woman who has long lived alone in the marshlands of North Carolina and is accused of a murder. Reese Witherspoon produced the movie that was directed by Olivia Newman from a screenplay by Lucy Alibar.
The movie has been ill-received by critics, with a 33 percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes and THR‘s review calling it “a muddled moral fantasy.” But the movie earned 4.5 stars in PostTrak audience exit polling.
Paramount animated feature Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank took in $505,000 from approximately 2,650 locations. The title, which was an acquisition for the studio, will expand to 3,475 locations for the weekend.
Paws of Fury stars Michael Cera as Hank, a loveable dog who dreams of becoming a samurai, which is a job usually reserved for cats. Tasked with helping protect a village of cats, Hank finds a reluctant teacher (Samuel L. Jackson) to train him and then teams up with the villagers to save the day. Michelle Yeoh, Mel Brooks, George Takei and Ricky Gervais also star.
Also new this weekend is Focus Features and eOne title Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, which is out in a limited release. The movie follows a widowed cleaning lady (Lesley Manville) who falls in love with a Dior dress and is determined to travel to Paris to get her own.
Thor earned $8.3 million on Thursday night. The film has now passed $400 million at the global box office and is expected to win the weekend.
Elsewhere there is Universal/Illumination Entertainment’s animated movie Minions: Rise of Gru, which has over $236 million at the North American box office after two weeks in theaters, as well as Warner Bros.’ Elvis and Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick, the latter of which passed $600 million at the North American box office earlier this week.