Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie claimed the top spot at the U.S. box office over the weekend, significantly outpacing its predecessor in terms of opening weekend revenue. According to data from Box Office Mojo, the film earned an impressive $23 million during its inaugural weekend in North American theaters. This figure nearly doubled the $13 million earned by its forerunner, titled PAW Patrol: The Movie, during its opening weekend in 2021. It’s worth noting that the 2021 installment also had a simultaneous debut on Paramount+.

Taking the second position at the box office was Saw X, which managed to rake in approximately $18 million. While this performance exceeded the recent Saw franchise entries, it still fell short of the franchise’s average opening weekend of $23 million, as reported by Box Office Mojo. Nevertheless, it surpassed the opening weekends of the franchise’s 2021 and 2017 installments.

In the third spot was “The Creator,” a film directed by Gareth Edwards that explores a conflict between humans and artificial intelligence. The movie brought in $14 million.

In fourth place was “The Nun 2,” another horror film, which collected just $4.7 million during its fourth weekend in theaters. Box Office Mojo noted that “The Nun 2” had previously held the No. 1 spot at the box office for its first three weekends in cinemas.

Comparatively, “Saw III” stands as the top-performing debut weekend among the ten films in the Saw franchise, earning an impressive $33.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo. Saw X is currently on track to have the fourth-lowest opening weekend, following Spiral (the ninth installment, with $8.7 million), Saw VI (with $14 million), and Jigsaw (the eighth installment, with $16.6 million). The 10th installment is expected to open just behind the original “Saw,” which collected $18.2 million during its debut in 2004.

Interestingly, while “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie” outperformed its predecessor, both films, which are based on the popular animated kids’ TV show “PAW Patrol,” have received nearly identical audience and critics’ ratings. Rotten Tomatoes data shows that the original film earned a critics’ score of 80% and an audience score of 97%, while the sequel, as of Sunday afternoon, boasts a critics’ score of 81% and an audience score of 94%.