Los Angeles (AFP) - The vampire movie "Morbius" topped the North American box office this weekend, albeit with an opening take seen as lackluster for a comic book superhero flick at $39.1 million, Exhibitor Relations said Sunday.
The Columbia Pictures film, distributed by Sony and starring Jared Leto as an anti-hero, is adapted from Marvel comics.The character Morbius was originally introduced as a Spider-Man villain.
In this story Michael Morbius is a Nobel prize-winning doctor who by accident turns himself into a blood sucker while working to cure a blood disease.
"This is a weak opening by Marvel's exceptional standard for launching a new superhero series," said Franchise Entertainment Research.
The Venom character also started within the Spider-Man story, and by comparison "Venom 1" opened with an $80 million box office take in October 2018, it said.
"Critics are saying the Jared Leto vampire film sucks," said the news outlet TheStreet.
Last weekend's leader, Paramount's new action romance "The Lost City" took in $14.8 million for the Friday through Sunday period as it dropped to second place.
In it Sandra Bullock plays a romance novelist kidnapped by a twisted tycoon (Daniel Radcliffe of "Harry Potter" fame) who wants her to help him find a buried artifact on a remote island.
Channing Tatum, as a male book-cover model whose abs are sharper than his mind, does his best to help her escape -- even as a volcano erupts.
In its fifth weekend in theaters the Warner Bros' dark superhero movie "The Batman" scored a take of $10.8 million as it took third place.Robert Pattinson plays the title role.
Remaining in fourth place for the second straight week was Sony's "Uncharted," at $3.6 million.Tom Holland plays an Indiana Jones-style treasure hunter.
And in fifth, at $2 million, was "Jujutsu Kaisen 0" from Crunchroll/Funimation, a dark animation about a student-turned-sorcerer who battles a cursed spirit.
Rounding out the top 10 were:
"RRR" ($1.6 million)
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" ($1.4 million)
"Dog" ($1.3 million)
"X" ($1.02 million)
"Everything Everywhere All at Once" ($1.01 million)
