“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” is chilling atop the weekend box office with $45M debut

With this latest entry, the "Ghostbusters" franchise has crossed the $1B mark at the worldwide box office.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire ain't afraid of no pandas. Or giant desert worms, for that matter.

The sequel to 2021's Ghostbusters: Afterlife and the fifth film in the Ghostbusters franchise, Frozen Empire grossed $45.2 million in its opening weekend, domestically, as per Comscore (compared to Afterlife's $44 million opening). Internationally, the film added another $16.4 million, for a global premiere weekend of $61.6 million.

That total pushes the Ghostbusters franchise past the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office.

<p>Columbia Pictures</p> 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire'

Columbia Pictures

'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire'

Frozen Empire reunites the original Ghostbusters cast — Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts — with the Spengler family — Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon — along with Paul Rudd's Gary Grooberson, all first introduced in Afterlife.

Filming with the OG Ghostbusters was a"surreal experience," Rudd told Entertainment Weekly.

“[Carrie and I] kind of kept looking over at each other without saying it. You could see it in each other's eyes of like, ‘Oh, my God, I can't believe we're here.’ Seeing this, doing this with them. And that never really went away," Rudd said.

“I mean, it probably abated a bit to the point where we were able to film the scenes and not fall over ourselves,” he added, jokingly. “But the kind of the appeal and kind of strangeness of it all never really left us.”

<p>Neon</p> Sydney Sweeney in 'Immaculate'

Neon

Sydney Sweeney in 'Immaculate'

Dune: Part Two maintained second place from last week, earning $17.6 million in its fourth week of release, for a domestic cume of $223.4 million. Worldwide, the Denis Villeneuve sci fi epic is sitting at $574.4 million.

Kung Fu Panda 4 has also proved its legs and they are kicking. The fourth film in the Kung Fu Panda franchise topped the international box office (wth $134.9 million) though it dropped two spots to No. 3 domestically, grossing $16.8 million. That brings its three-week, worldwide cume to $268.2 million.

Immaculate, starring Sydney Sweeney as a devout nun who journeys to a remote convent in the picturesque Italian countryside where she quickly finds a sinister secret and unspeakable horrors, opened in fourth place with $5.4 million.

As star and producer of the film, Sweeney had one major request. "My big thing was, by the end of the movie, I just wanted to be drenched in blood," she told EW. "I love those moments where, at the end of the film, you have the female badass that just went through the wringer and takes it all at the end."

Rounding out the top 5, Arthur the King, starring Ukai the dog as the titular royal and Mark Wahlberg as his human who takes him on a 435-mile race, took in $4.4 million in its second week, bringing its domestic cume to $14.6 million ($15.2 million worldwide).

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