Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie fights off Saw X for box office dominance this weekend

I suppose kids’ movies still have some life left in them. In a surprising turn of events, Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie was able to fend off against Saw X for dominance at the box office this weekend. While the animated feature about cop dogs (ew) barely squeaked out a victory, it still somehow toppled the first well-received entry in the Saw franchise. Talk about fighting against the odds. The doggy film earned $23 million domestically against Saw’s $18 million, which is a solid turnout.

Rounding out the top three was another newcomer, the bizarre sci-fi feature The Creator. While reviews have been lukewarm on it, it seems enough people were interested to generate around $14 million for the weekend. That’s a pretty far cry away from the reported $80 million budget, but there is still a chance the film will become profitable over the coming weeks.

If you were wondering about Expend4bles after last week, it’s pretty clear now that the film is a commercial bomb. Dropping off an astonishing 69%, the final hurrah for old-school action heroes came in at ninth place with just $2.5 million. It was beaten out by The Nun II -again!-, A Haunting in Venice, Dumb Money, and The Equalizer 3. Only Barbie came in below the bro-howdy team-up film, though that’s because it’s pushing three months in wide release.

Looking at the totals, this was a pretty dire weekend at the box office. The films that scored big were at least made on a cheaper budget, but there have been a ton of flops this year. COVID didn’t help things with protracted production cycles, but Hollywood should really take notice of what managed to be successful this year. You don’t always need $150+ million to make a “good” movie.

Here are the top 10 films for the weekend of September 29 – October 1, 2023. All totals listed are domestic:

1. Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie – $23 million
2. Saw X – $18 million
3. The Creator – $14 million
4. The Nun II – $4.8 million
5. The Blind – $4.3 million
6. A Haunting in Venice – $3.8 million
7. Dumb Money – $3.3 million
8. The Equalizer 3 – $2.7 million
9. Expend4bles – $2.5 million
10. Barbie – $1.4 million