Dunkirk Tops Box Office With $50.5M Opening

It's victory for Dunkirk at the box office this weekend. Studios on Sunday say the Christopher Nolan World War II epic earned an estimated $50.5 million to top the charts, with $11.7 million of that coming from IMAX screens (and it's already a darling among critics). Per the AP, the well-reviewed Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish, and Jada Pinkett Smith comedy Girls Trip also beat expectations, taking second place with $30.4 million. Audiences were 79% female and gave the film a coveted A+ CinemaScore.

Not so successful was Luc Besson's $180 million sci-fi epic Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, which earned $17 million from North American theaters over the weekend. Exposure was limited, however. Besson's production company EuropaCorp says 90% of the budget was already covered by foreign pre-sales, equity financing, and tax subsidies. (More movies stories.)