"Raya and the Last Dragon" tops North American box office for third weekend in a row

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)/File Photo

LOS ANGELES, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Disney's animated action-adventure film "Raya and the Last Dragon" won the North American box office for a third straight weekend with 5.15 million U.S. dollars from 2,261 theaters between Friday and Sunday, according to studio figures collected by measurement firm Comscore.

Directed by Don Hall and Carlos Lopez Estrada, the film inspired by Southeast Asian culture and set in the fantasy land of Kumundra, follows a young girl who sets off on a perilous journey to find the legendary last dragon to help unite her fractured land and save her divided people from an ancient evil force that threatens them all.

"Raya and the Last Dragon" features a predominantly Asian American voice cast led by Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina. The film is also available on Disney's digital streaming service, Disney+, for an extra 30 dollars to subscribers.

"Raya and the Last Dragon" has grossed 23.43 million dollars in North America as around 51 percent of all theaters in the region are currently open. As another addition to the box office boost, theaters in Los Angeles, the largest metropolitan movie market in the United States, are reopening this week after the most populous county in the country moved into the red tier, the less restrictive tier of California's four-tier system.

The film also took in 8 million dollars from overseas markets this weekend, pushing its global total to 71.2 million dollars to date.

According to the box office data compiled by Maoyan, a Chinese movie-ticketing and film data platform, "Raya and the Last Dragon" has earned more than 113 million yuan (around 17.3 million dollars) on the Chinese mainland to date.

Warner Bros.' animated film "Tom and Jerry" came in second with 3.83 million dollars from 2,508 locations in its fourth weekend. The film's North American total is now at 33.68 million dollars for a global cume of 77.2 million dollars.

Directed by Tim Story, the film based on the iconic cartoon characters is an eye-popping blend of classic animation and live action. The cat and mouse battle flares up again when Jerry moves into New York City's finest hotel on the eve of "the wedding of the century," forcing the event's desperate planner to hire Tom to get rid of him.

Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate's historical drama film "The Courier" opened in the third place with 2.01 million dollars from 1,433 locations this weekend.

Directed by Dominic Cooke and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel Brosnahan and Merab Ninidze, the film tells the true story of an unassuming British businessman who helped the UK's MI-6 penetrate the Soviet nuclear program in an effort to provide crucial intelligence needed to prevent a nuclear confrontation and defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Lionsgate's sci-fi film "Chaos Walking" landed in the fourth place with 1.92 million dollars from 2,132 locations in its third weekend for a North American total of 9.69 million dollars.

Directed by Doug Liman and starring Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland, the film follows a young man who lives in a dystopian world where there are no women and all living creatures can hear each other's thoughts in a stream of images, words, and sounds called "Noise."

Showing endurance at the box office, Universal and DreamWorks' animated family film "The Croods: A New Age" finished fifth with 620,000 dollars from 1,411 locations in its 17th weekend for a North American total of 55.2 million dollars.

The film has grossed 160 million dollars worldwide to date.

Helmed by Joel Crawford in his feature directorial debut, "The Croods: A New Age," with a reported budget of 65 million dollars, features the voice talent of returning stars, including Nicolas Cage, Catherine Keener, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds.

The sequel to the 2013 original film follows the prehistoric Crood family who sets off into the world in search of a safer place to live and meets another family that's a couple of steps above the Croods on the evolutionary ladder.