Oscar weekend, but lots of empty theater seats in N. America

Marvel and Disney’s “Captain America: Brave New World” stayed on top of the North American box office on what is being called the slowest Oscar weekend in years.

With no big new releases to compete against, the superhero flick earned an estimated $15 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, just over half of last weekend’s take, industry analyst Exhibitor Relations reported.

The weekend’s poor performance reflects both the disappointing showing of big-budget “Captain America” and the fact that nearly every top Oscar-nominated film is now available for streaming or has ended its theatrical run, The Hollywood Reporter said.

One new release did make the weekend’s top five: Focus Features’ “Last Breath,” which earned $7.8 million to place second. Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole star in the film about deep-sea divers racing to save a stranded teammate.

In third was Neon Studio’s comedy-horror film “The Monkey,” based on a Stephen King short story, at $6.4 million. Theo James, Rohan Campbell and Elijah Wood star in the tale of a toy monkey with homicidal tendencies.

Columbia and Sony’s “Paddington in Peru” slipped one spot from last weekend to place fourth at $4.5 million. Ben Whishaw voices the floppy-hatted bear.

And fifth place went to Universal’s superhero comedy “Dog Man,” inspired by the “Captain Underpants” books, at $4.2 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“Mufasa: The Lion King” ($1.9 million)

“Ne Zha 2” ($1.8 million)

“Heart Eyes” ($1.3 million)

“The Unbreakable Boy” ($1.2 million)

“Riff Raff” ($930,000)