Concert film stays on top but ‘Flower Moon’ impresses screens

LOS ANGELES

The new Taylor Swift concert movie held on to the top spot in North American theaters this weekend, but history-based crime epic "Killers of the Flower Moon" had an impressive debut, the best for a Martin Scorsese film since 2010.

"Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour," distributed by AMC Theaters, took in an estimated $31 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Sunday.

That pushed the two-week domestic total for the film, which includes scenes from three of the pop superstar's concerts, to $129.8 million. It is now the only concert film ever to top the box office for two straight weekends, Variety reported.

Meantime, Scorsese's new film had a strong debut, particularly given its three and a half hour runtime, its upcoming release on streamer Apple TV+, and the inability of stars Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio to promote it as the actors strike continues, taking in $23 million.

"Reviews and audience scores are superb," said analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. With a slew of award nominations expected for the director and cast (also including Jesse Plemons and Lily Gladstone), "the picture is set up for a strong run," Gross added.

"Flower Moon" tells the true story of the murders of Native Americans in Oklahoma early in the last century by evildoers after their oil rights.

In third spot for the weekend, down from second, was Universal's horror film "Exorcist: The Believer," at $5.6 million. Leslie Odom Jr. and Ann Dowd star in this scary sequel to the 1973 original.

Fourth place went to Paramount's family-friendly animation "Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie," at $4.5 million. Taraji P. Henson, Chris Rock, Serena Williams and McKenna Grace voice the super-pups.

And in fifth was Disney's re-release of 1993 classic "The Nightmare Before Christmas," at $4.1 million. Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon and Catherine O'Hara star in Tim Burton's dark stop-motion fantasy.