'The Bad Guys' Holds The Top Box Office Spot At $16.1M

The animated feature “The Bad Guys” ranked as the top grossing film at the U.S. weekend box office for a second consecutive week, absorbing $16.1 million from 4,042 screens.

What Happened: The freewheeling adaptation of Aaron Blabey’s children books series, produced by DreamWorks Animation and released by Comcast Corp.’s CMCSA Universal Pictures, has totaled $44.4 million from the domestic market during its two weeks in theatrical release.

“Sonic the Hedgehog 2” from Paramount PARAA was the weekend’s second most popular release, generating $11.3 million in ticket sales from 3,801 theaters. The animation/live-action hybrid has totaled $160.9 million from the four weeks that it has been in theaters.

Rounding out the box office top five are “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” from Warner Bros. WBD, with $8.3 million from 3,962 screens; “The Northman” from Comcast’s Focus Features, with $6.3 million from 3,234 screens; and A24’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” with $5.5 million from 2,213 theaters.

What Happens Next: The only film opening in the coming week for a nationwide release is the Walt Disney Co.’s DIS “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the 28th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Among the smaller films that will be opening in limited release are two animated features: Viva Pictures’ French-produced “Around the World in 80 Days,” which updates the Jules Verne tale with zoomorphic characters in a contemporary setting, and Vertical Entertainment’s “The Little Sorcerer,” about two girls seeking a magic stone that can restore a prince who has been changed into a mouse. A third animated feature, an adaptation of the long-running cartoon strip “Marmaduke,” is having a streaming premiere on Netflix NFLX.

Other films playing in limited release are 30West’s documentary “Wuhan Wuhan” about the Chinese city that was ground zero for COVID-19; Saban Films’ British horror import “Shepherd” starring Tom Hughes and Greta Scacchi; and Cinedigm’s CIDM crime drama “The Ravine” starring Eric Dane, Peter Falcinelli and Leslie Uggams.

Also Happening: During the silent movie era, Lloyd Hamilton was praised as one of the most inventive clowns of the dialogue-free screen – and no less a figure than Charlie Chaplin reportedly called Hamilton “the one actor I am jealous of” while Buster Keaton called him “one of the funniest men in pictures.”

Sadly, many of Hamilton’s silent films are considered lost. Hamilton transitioned into the sound film era, but most of that work is not easily available for review. One of Hamilton’s last films, the 1934 “Wedding Belles,” has re-emerged for the first time in many years and can now be seen on the Geno’s House of Rare Films page on YouTube:

Photo: A scene from "The Bad Guys," courtesy of Universal Pictures.