LOS ANGELES, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Disney's latest film "Raya and the Last Dragon" sprinted to the top of North American box office with an estimated 8.6 million U.S. dollars from 2,045 theaters between Friday and Sunday in its opening weekend, according to studio figures collected by measurement firm Comscore.
Directed by Don Hall and Carlos Lopez Estrada, the animated action-adventure 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.
The film features a predominantly Asian American voice cast led by Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina.
"Raya and the Last Dragon" debuted simultaneously on Disney+. The film holds an approval rating of 95 percent based on 214 reviews to date on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes and an A on CinemaScore.
Overseas, the film took in 17.6 million dollars from 32 markets for a worldwide cume of 26.2 million dollars this weekend.
The Chinese mainland has fueled nearly half of the film's overseas box office with more than 55 million yuan (about 8.46 million U.S. dollars) after three days of launch, according to the box office data compiled by Maoyan, a Chinese movie-ticketing and film data platform.
Another animated film, Warner Bros.' "Tom and Jerry," came in second with 6.61 million dollars from 2,563 locations in its second weekend, pushing its North American total to 22.95 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.
Lionsgate's sci-fi film "Chaos Walking" opened in third place with 3.82 million dollars from 1,980 locations this weekend.
Directed by Doug Liman and starring Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland, this 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."
Focus Features' drama film "Boogie" landed in fourth with 1.2 million dollars from 1,252 locations in its North America debut weekend.
Directed by Eddie Huang in his directorial debut, the film follows a Chinese-American basketball player in Queens, New York, who struggles to balance the pressure from his parents to go to a good college over chasing his NBA dreams.
Universal and DreamWorks' animated family film "The Croods: A New Age" finished fifth with 780,000 dollars from 1,604 locations in its fifteenth weekend for a North American total of 53.61 million dollars.
The film has grossed 157 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.