Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt soar in 'The Fall Guy' debut weekend

Universal's new action film The Fall Guy opened atop the North American box office this weekend, taking in an estimated $28.5 million at a time moviegoing has hit a slump, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.

Based on a 1980s TV series, the film from stuntman-turned-director David Leitch features stunning action sequences, including one already Guinness-certified record stunt. It also benefits from the star power of recent Oscar nominees Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt.

Analysts called the film's opening disappointing given its $130 million production cost, but David A Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research said he viewed it as "the potential start of an action comedy series."

In second was Disney and Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, scoring $8.1 million, a surprising amount for the re-release of a 25-year-old film, one available for viewing at home and which was hardly the most popular in the Star Wars franchise. Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman star.

Last weekend's list-topper, MGM's tennis-based romance Challengers, slipped to third at $7.6 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period. Singer/actor Zendaya plays a tennis star who retires after an injury, then later helps her husband (Mike Faist) prepare for a key match against her former lover and his erstwhile friend (Josh O'Connor).

Fourth place went to a new horror film, Tarot from Sony and Screen Gems, at $6.5 million. While critics' reviews have been poor, the film “leaves no horror cliche unturned,” Variety said. The film cost just $8 million to make, so producers shouldn't be having nightmares.

And in fifth was Warner Bros.' Godzilla x Kong: A New Empire at $4.5 million in its sixth weekend out. The battling monsters have so far grossed $188 million domestically and an additional $337 million globally.

Looking back, April was a rough month for Hollywood, with the domestic box office down 48 percent from the three pre-pandemic Aprils, Gross said. “There's no way to make this pretty,” he said, adding that the industry is still suffering the aftereffects of last year's strikes.

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