‘The Grinch’ makes off with $66 million

LOS ANGELES — You’re a mean one — and you’re number one — Mr. Grinch.

“Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch” sledded past mixed reviews and made off with $66 million for Universal Pictures to top the weekend North American box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Last week’s top film, the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” drops to second for 20th Century Fox with a $30.8 million weekend that brings its overall take to $100 million.

Illumination, the Universal-owned animators behind “The Minions” and “Despicable Me,” produced the latest interpretation of Seuss’ 1957 book that led to a 1966 TV special and first came to the big screen as a live-action feature starring Jim Carrey in 2000.

Paramount Pictures’ war-horror hybrid “Overlord” was third in its first weekend with $10.1 million. Disney’s “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” brought in $9.5 million and finished fourth in its second week. The weekend’s other major debut, “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” made just $8 million and finished fifth.

Illumination’s “Grinch,” narrated by Pharrell Williams, gives the title character, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, a backstory in an orphanage and fills out the story of his foil Cindy Lou Who.

It’s the second Seuss adaptation for Illumination.