‘Pacific Rim’ ends 5-week reign of ‘Black Panther’

Holdover now top superhero movie in North America

NEW YORK — After six weeks, “Black Panther” has finally been unseated as the top film at the North American box office. The monsters vs. robots science-fiction sequel “Pacific Rim: Uprising” dethroned the superhero sensation with $28 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

But the result for “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” a Universal Pictures-Legendary Entertainment release that cost $150 million to make, was soft — at least domestically. Like the recently released “Tomb Raider,” its biggest business was in China, where “Pacific Rim: Uprising” debuted with $65 million.

Even though “Black Panther” slid to second place with $16.7 million in its sixth weekend, Ryan Coogler’s film hit another box-office milestone. It’s now the highest-grossing superhero film ever in North America, not accounting for inflation. The film’s $631 million in domestic ticket sales has surpassed the $623 million of 2012’s “The Avengers.” “Black Panther” also becomes the fifth highest grossing film of all-time, rising above “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”

“Pacific Rim: Uprising” may have taken down “Black Panther,” but a blockbuster heir hasn’t been found. Next weekend, Steven Spielberg will try with his big-budget virtual-reality spectacle “Ready Player One.”

MGM and Paramount Pictures’ animated family sequel “Sherlock Gnomes” disappointed with a $10.6 million debut.

The results were also modest for Steven Soderbergh’s “Unsane,” a psychological thriller starring Claire Foy (“The Crown”) that the director shot with iPhones.

The Christian drama “I Can Only Imagine” held especially strongly in its second weekend, emerging as the clear faith-based film of choice ahead of Easter, likely to the detriment of “Paul: Apostle of Christ,” which took in $5 million this weekend for Sony’s Affirm Films.