In an especially busy Christmas holiday weekend at the North American box office, Aquaman swept away the competition to become the clear highest earning film of the weekend while Mary Poppins Returns narrowly overtook Bumblebee in its first weekend.

The DCEU film earned $72 million at the domestic box office including preview screenings, taking the top spot by a significant margin. The weekend earnings are right on track with previous industry estimates that the film would earn $70-75 million over the three days and Thursday night previews.

RELATED: Bumblebee: How the Transformer Lost the Ability to Speak

Taking the second spot was the Disney sequel Mary Poppins Returns, earning $22.2 million over the past three days with a total of $31 million earned domestically after the film opened this past Wednesday. The Transformers spinoff prequel Bumblebee earned $20.9 million over the weekend, taking the third spot. Despite posting the lowest opening weekend of any Transformers film at the domestic box office, the film has received the best critical reviews of the franchise to date and, with a reported production budget of $100 million, is significantly cheaper than its counterparts directed by Michael Bay. Sony's animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse continued to hold steady despite the added competition going into its second weekend, earning $16.3 million putting its current domestic box office total at $65 million on a reported production budget of $95 million.

Following Thursday night preview screenings, Aquaman had a global box office total of $345.8 million. With the box office totals now reflecting this past weekend, the DCEU film has now earned $482.8 million worldwide and is poised to reach $500 million at the global box office by Christmas. This puts Warner Bros.' tentative plans for a sequel much closer to becoming a reality.

RELATED: REVIEW: Mary Poppins Returns is Fun, But Not Groundbreaking

(via Variety)