‘ Good Boys’ lands at No. 1 to end R- rated comedy drought

NEW YORK — The Rrated comedy, left for dead by some Hollywood studios, again reached No. 1 at the box office over the weekend thanks to the raunchy comingof- age tale “Good Boys,” about a trio of 12- year- olds on a crude misadventure.

“Good Boys” surpassed expectations to debut with $ 21 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, dethroning the “Fast & Furious” spinoff “Hobbs & Shaw,” which slid to second with $ 14.1 million in its third weekend. Not since Melissa McCarthy’s “The Boss” came in No. 1 in April 2016 has an R- rated comedy topped the North American box office.

“This is like a unicorn sighting,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore.

In recent years, R- rated horror has largely taken the place of R- rated comedy at the box office, as Hollywood has increasingly ceded the genre to TV and streaming services. But Universal Pictures, which released “Good Boys,” has kept the flame. The studio was behind “The Boss” as well as the intervening years’ highest grossing domestic comedies: 2017’ s “Girls Trip” and 2018’ s “Night School.”

“Good Boys” broke out of a crowded late- summer field of new releases. The weekend’s other new widely released films — the animated sequel “The Angry Birds Movie 2,” the shark attack sequel “47 Meters Down: Uncaged,” the Bruce Springsteen- inspired drama “Blinded by the Light” and Richard Linklater’s Cate Blanchett- led “Where’d You Go Bernadette” — all fizzled.

“Good Boys” rode a buzzy premiere at South By Southwest, good reviews ( 80% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), and the imprimatur of producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (“Good Boys” is much like a tween version of “Superbad”) to notch the best opening for an original comedy this year.

Estimated ticket sales ( in millions) for Friday through Sunday at U. S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included.

1. “Good Boys” — $ 21.0

2. “Hobbs & Shaw” — $ 14.1

3. “The Lion King” — $ 11.9

4. “The Angry Birds Movie 2” — $ 10.5

5. “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” — $ 10.1

6. “47 Meters Down: Uncaged” — $ 9.0

7. “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” — $ 8.5

8. “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood” — $ 7.6

9. “Blinded by the Light” — $ 4.5

10. “Art of Racing in the Rain” — $ 4.4