Horror film "Spiral: From the Book of Saw" tops North American box office for 2nd weekend in a row

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LOS ANGELES, May 23 (Xinhua) -- American horror film "Spiral: From the Book of Saw," the ninth and latest one of the Saw series, remained the winner of the North American box office with an estimated 4.55 million U.S. dollars from 2,991 theaters during its second weekend of release, according to studio figures collected by measurement firm Comscore.

The Lionsgate's R-rated film has grossed 15.82 million dollars in North America in 10 days after its initial release, pushing the franchise's total to over 1 billion dollars at global box office.

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and starring Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson and Max Minghella, the sequel follows a police detective who is unwittingly entrapped in a deepening mystery and finds himself at the center of a killer's morbid game.

As ticket sales at the box office have been accelerating in North America amid decline in COVID-19 and the vaccine rollout, the more exciting news for Hollywood this weekend is the robust performance of Universal's "F9: The Fast Saga" in international markets. The film kicked off its international run in eight markets, taking in a huge 162.4 million dollars worldwide.

China is the most important international market for the latest installment in the Fast and Furious action franchise. The film earned more than 880 million yuan (around 136 million U.S. dollars) on the Chinese mainland alone after three days of release, according to box office data compiled by Maoyan, a Chinese movie-ticketing and film data platform.

The previous two entries in the series, "The Fate of the Furious" (2017) and "Furious 7" (2015), grossed 2.67 billion yuan and 2.42 billion yuan on the Chinese mainland, respectively.

United Artists Releasing's action film "Wrath of Man" came in second with 2.93 million dollars from 3,007 locations in its third weekend for a North American cume of 18.8 million dollars.

Directed by Guy Ritchie, the film stars Jason Statham as a mysterious and wild-eyed new cash truck security guard who surprises his coworkers during a heist in which he unexpectedly unleashes precision skills.

Warner Bros. Pictures' action thriller film "Those Who Wish Me Dead" was in the third place with 1.83 million dollars from 3,379 locations this weekend. The film has earned 5.53 million dollars in North America after two weekends of release.

Directed by Taylor Sheridan and based on American author Michael Koryta's 2014 novel of the same name, the film stars Angelina Jolie as Hannah, a smoke jumper still reeling from the loss of three lives she failed to save from a fire when she comes across a teenage murder witness pursued by twin assassins in the Montana wilderness.

Disney's animated action-adventure film "Raya and the Last Dragon" landed in fourth with 1.66 million dollars from 2,375 locations in its twelfth weekend for a North American total of 48.3 million dollars.

Directed by Don Hall and Carlos Lopez Estrada, the film inspired by Southeast Asian culture and set in the fantasy land of Kumandra, 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.

Warner Bros. and Legendary's monster film "Godzilla vs. Kong" finished fifth with 1.43 million dollars from 2,552 locations in its eighth weekend, pushing its North American total to 96.91 million dollars to date.

The film is the fourth entry in Warner Bros. and Legendary's MonsterVerse franchise. In the film, the two iconic silver screen behemoths meet in a spectacular battle for the ages, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

Directed by Adam Wingard, the film stars Alexander Skarsgard, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eiza Gonzalez and Julian Dennison.