Thor may have met his match, and it’s not Loki or evil elves.
The belated comedy sequel “Best Man Holiday” narrowly upset holdover “Thor: The Dark World” for the top spot at the box office on Friday, although the Marvel sequel is still expected to win the weekend.
Universal’s “Holiday” picked up a surprising $10.7 million on Friday, with “Thor” barely behind with a still-strong $10.4 million.
However, “Best Man” is tracking to earn around $31 million for the weekend, while “Thor” will likely pick up a mightier $35 million or so.
“Holiday” — budgeted around just $17 million — features stars Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan and Nia Long all returning from the original, which opened to $9 million way back in 1999.
The Alan Taylor-directed “Thor” sequel has earned $119 million in the U.S. and could cross the $450 million mark globally by Monday, which would push it past the original 2011 “Thor’s” total gross of $449.3 million.
Meanwhile, in third place was the comedy holdover “Last Vegas,” which scored another $2.5 million, bringing its domestic total to $40.6 million.
“Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa” crashed its way to No. 4, picking up another $2.3 million. Its North American total stands at an impressive $84.8 million.
Relativity’s animated film “Free Birds” rounded out the top five, with another $1.7 million. So far, the turkeys have gobbled up $35.6 million.
Lionsgate’s highly-anticipated sequel “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” is expected to dominate next weekend’s box office.
Look for complete box office estimates for the weekend on Sunday.