The Meg tops the box office with $44.5 million debut

Jason Statham in "The Meg."
(Image credit: Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP)

Sci-fi thriller The Meg had an impressive opening weekend, bringing in an estimated $44.5 million at the U.S. box office.

The Warner Bros. film about scientists trying to keep an enormous shark from causing chaos was expected to debut with $20 million domestically. It's estimated the movie brought in $141.3 million worldwide. The Meg had the biggest domestic opening for a live-action shark movie, not adjusted for inflation; The Hollywood Reporter says Jaws is still the top-grossing live-action shark film in the U.S., adjusted or not.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.