A German comedy interrupted the top three last weekend with a more than impressive debut in third place, while the number one and two showed staying power.

Jurassic World: Ein Neues Zeitalter (Jurassic World: Dominion) stayed where it debuted last week – firmly planted on top of the charts with enough dinosaur fighting power to keep the number two at bay. Top Gun: Maverick kept flying high, just not quite high enough.

It is an out-and-out comedy that premiered highest: Die Geschichte der Menschheit – leicht gekürzt (The Story of Mankind – Slightly Shortened, yes, this is indeed its title). The story: in 1977, professor Dr. Gerhard Friedle, paid by German actor Christoph Maria Herbst, wants to press a short version of the world’s history on a golden record. With a lot of historically not-so-correct “facts”. The big bang is a pure accident in the professor’s version, Greek philosophers act like rap stars and even the failed assassination of Hitler didn’t quite happen the way he wants us to believe. When the record is found by aliens, even they cannot believe what they see. The film was conceived and shot by the comedy team behind the German TV series Sketch History which aired between 2015-2019.

Lightyear, the prequel to the Toy Story films traces the beginnings of astronaut Buzz Lightyear and boasts the voices of Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, and James Brolin in the original version. German actors dubbed the animated movie for local audiences. While cowboy Woody’s toy history is well-known to fans, young astronaut Buzz’s was a mystery. Until now. Lightyear is the film that Andy once saw and that drove him to get the action figure in the first place. Evans replaced Tim Allen as Buzz’s voice to make him sound younger. In the German version, Tom Wlaschiha who also dubbed Game of Thrones takes on the role.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness slid to number five, followed by another debut, Massive Talent starring Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal and Tiffany Haddish. More about this action-adventure below. The anime film Belle was in seventh place, with Fantastische Tierwesen 3: Dumbledores Geheimnisse (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore) in eighth and Immenhof – Das Grosse Versprechen (Immenhof – The Big Promise) in ninth. The last spot in the German top ten went to Mia and Me – Das Geheimnis von Centopia (Mia and Me – The Secret of Centopia).

In Austria the first two megahits stayed in place just like in their neighboring country, but Nicolas Cage who shot many a film in and around Vienna and even tried to buy an old decrepit castle once (the Austrian government refused to sell), is still a huge draw; so Massive Talent, in which he plays himself seems to be a hit. Getting hired by a drug cartel boss – who also happens to be an almost-stalker and super fan – to entertain his friends at a party, his wife’s and daughter’s lives are threatened unless he gets information from the CIA.  The film debuted in third place. The Lost City proved resilient once again, returning to the top ten after a week out of it.