Christmas movie 'Red One' tops North American box office

 The Christmas-themed film "Red One" topped the North American box office in its first weekend, according to estimates from industry watcher Exhibitor Relations.

The MGM film took in $34.1 million between Friday and Sunday, a result that fell short of expectations given the budget for a film "supposed to be the launch of an action-comedy franchise," said David Gross, an industry expert at Franchise Entertainment Research.

The film, which stars a distinguished cast including Chris Evans, Lucy Liu and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, tells the story of the kidnapping of Santa Claus and the search for him.

"The critics' ratings are not great, but it's a popular film, and what matters is the audience's feedback," Gross said, noting that the audience's response has been "excellent" so far.

"Venom: The Last Dance" dropped to second place after three weeks at the top of the box office. The sci-fi film from Sony Studios earned $7.4 million between Friday and Sunday, bringing its total revenue in Canada and the United States to $127.6 million.

Tom Hardy once again plays a disgruntled journalist who turns into a terrifying alien with huge teeth in this third installment of the "Venom" series. He is joined by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple and Rhys Ifans.

In addition to "Red One", another Christmas-themed film, "The Best Christmas Pegeant Ever", which surprised the audience last week by taking second place in its opening weekend.

The film, based on the 1972 children's book by Barbara Robinson, tells the story of families in a small town where children wreak havoc during the annual Christmas party. It earned $5.4 million between Friday and Sunday.

It was followed by "Heretic" with $5.2 million. Hugh Grant stars in this horror film, playing an unusual role for his career.

DreamWorks' sci-fi animated film "The Wild Robot" came in fifth place with $4.3 million.

The animated film centers on a robot named Rose who is stranded on an uninhabited island after a hurricane, and makes friends with the animals of the jungle.

The rest of the top 10 films are as follows:

6- "Smile 2" ($3 million).

7- "Conclave" ($2.9 million).

8- "Hello, Love Egan" ($2.4 million).

9- "A Real Pain" ($2.3 million).

10- "Anora" ($1.8 million).