Like a musclebound lawman keeping a helicopter from leaving with the sheer force of his biceps, Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw prevented a batch of new arrivals from flying too high at the Stateside box office. The spin-off earned $25.4 million this weekend, according to studio estimates.
After a couple of weeks on release, Hobbs is up to $108.5 million in the US, with a healthy $332.6 million worldwide. It might still not be on the level of the bigger Fast franchise entries, but it's certainly doing solid business.
Of the newcomers, the Guillermo del Toro-produced young-adult-aimed Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark performed above expectations, earning $20.8 million. Given that there are plenty of the creepy tales still to adapt, this one seems like a potential franchise kick-off. It might depend on the worldwide take, but it's s strong start. The horror pushed The Lion King to third, but the Disney pic still made $20 million.
Fourth was another new arrival, as Dora And The Lost City Of Gold made $17 million, for a decent start. Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood was down to fifth with $11.6 million.
The Art Of Racing In The Rain, the latest film attempting to coast off a cute dog narrating a story of family and life, failed to race up the charts, landing sixth with $8.1 million. That was still better than fellow new arrival The Kitchen, with the mob drama/graphic novel adaptation getting burned in seventh and $5.5 million.
Spider-Man: Far From Home fell to eighth and $5.3 million, while Toy Story 4 dropped to ninth on $4.4 million. Finally, Bring The Soul: The Movie (about K-Pop sensation BTS) landed 10th with $2.2 million.