Box Office Discussion Thread

Should have posted this last week before I left town...

The box office continues to be dominated by Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. The latest MCU entry stabilized a bit after last week's free fall, losing only half its business from the weekend before. The sci-fi superhero entry took in $32.3 million to bring its total to $342.8 million. That puts it less than $25 million behind The Batman. While $400 million is not guaranteed, it does appear that the film has a decent-to-solid chance of getting there.

Opening in second is Downton Abbey: A New Era, the second theatrical sequel to the beloved 2010-2015 British period soap. Its opening of $16 million is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, it opened to only about half of what the first Downton Abbey opened to in September 2019. On the other, its opening is the best for a straightforward adult drama in the pandemic era, besting the Thanksgiving opening of House of Gucci by a little over a million. Plus, the film skewed old, with the majority of its audience being above 35. Older adults have been the most reluctant to come back to the theater in the wake of Covid, and this opening is a sign that, slowly but surely, they are beginning to return. We'll see if that can translate into a decent pair of legs for the film in the coming weeks.

Holding up very well in third and fourth are long-running family hits The Bad Guys and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The former was able to take in $6.1 million for a total of $74.4 million, while the latter brought in $4.1 million for a total of $181.2 million. The film is now available on Paramount +, and we'll see if its arrival for home viewing--at least by those with an account with the streaming service--will hurt it at the box office in the coming weeks.

Opening in fifth is the psychological horror thriller Men. The Alex Garland-directed movie, which stars Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear, could only manage a $3.3 million opening. While this one does have the makings of a cult hit, it, like several other wannabe cult films this spring, will have to wait and overcome mediocre box office.

A wannabe cult film that didn't wait for rediscovery down the line, Everything Everywhere All At Once continues to be the sleeper smash of the spring, earning another $3.1 million to bring its total to $52.3 million. The sci-fi action comedy has now passed Uncut Gems to become the highest grosser in A24's history, and seems likely to top out above $60 million.

Firestarter fell dramatically in its second weekend, losing nearly half of its opening weekend business. The ill-fated remake took in $2 million for a ten-day total of $7.1 million and still seems destined to finish below $10 million.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore still has an outside shot of hitting $100 million, as it took in $2 million to raise its total to $93.1 million. A film that looked like it would fall short, but now will likely cross the line by the end of the upcoming weekend, is The Lost City, which earned $1.6 million to bring its total to $99.3 million. Rounding out the Top 10, The Northman made $1.1 million to bring its total to $33.1 million.

Two new movies hit multiplexes in time for Memorial Day. After spending the last two years bouncing all over the schedule, Top Gun: Maverick, in which Tom Cruise returns to the role that made him a superstar 36 years later, finally hits theaters. Unlike most films that go through a lot of release dates, this is getting near-unanimous raves and is expected to have a huge opening, perhaps as high as $100 million (if it does open that big, it will be the first non-comic book movie to hit that opening weekend total since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker), and is virtually guaranteed to open at #1. Likely opening well behind is The Bob's Burgers Movie, a theatrical spin-off of the long-running animated cult hit TV sitcom. To be honest, it's rather amazing that the film is opening in theaters and not on a streaming platform. It is likely going to finish below both Top Gun and Doctor Strange, competing with Downton Abbey for third. Will Top Gun take our breath away with its opening? Or is this on the highway to the danger zone in terms of box office? We'll find out next week.

The usual pattern for massive blockbusters is a massive opening weekend, followed by a steep second-weekend drop. The reason is that most massive blockbusters just aren't all that good, which means the second weekend crowd is largely made up of people who had planned to see the film, but for whatever reason unable to make it out the previous weekend. On occasion, however, a blockbuster will prompt people to tell their friends "You have got to see this!" And that's what appears to be happening with Top Gun: Maverick.

The 3 1/2 decades later sequel earned an incredible $90 million in its second week, a decline of only 29% from the weekend before. That's the smallest second-weekend decline of a film that opened to over $100 million ever, and it does it coming off of a holiday weekend, which makes the hold even more impressive. Maverick turned in a ten-day total of $295.6 million, making this Tom Cruise's biggest hit ever, a stunning achievement even when you consider most of his biggest hits were from the 80s and 90s. Smashing past $400 million is a given, and soaring above $500 million is quite likely. To be totally fair, this second weekend came against almost no new competition, but Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness tumbled 67% in its second weekend, despite its only real competition being Firestarter.

The aforementioned Doctor Strange has, to a certain extent, seen its grosses stabilize after that drop, as it comes in second with $9.2 million. The MCU cog currently stands at $388.6 million, and should top $400 million in the next couple of weeks. Of course, by then, it might already be looking up at Top Gun.

The Bob's Burgers Movie suffered the second-weekend fall that blockbusters typically get, fading 63%, suggesting that fans of the show came out last weekend, but non-fans are, well, going to see Top Gun instead. The animated comedy made $4.6 million for a ten-day total of $22.4 million, not bad, but not the franchise-expander that Fox undoubtedly hoped when they greenlit the film, well before the Disney merger.

Long-running animated comedy The Bad Guys came in fourth, with $3.3 million, for a total of $87.3 million. With Lightyear only two weeks away, this seems destined to fall just short of $100 million, though studios have been known to take creative measures to push titles over the mark.

Along with Bob's Burgers, Downton Abbey: A New Era shows the risks of TV show adaptions, as both titles seem to be only attracting fans of the shows. It took in $3.2 million this weekend, for a total of $35.9 million, and will finish far below the grosses of the first Downton Abbey movie in 2019.

Top Gun may be developing into a word-of-mouth hit, but it is also a massive pre-sold blockbuster that was destined to do at least $150 million no matter what. It can't hold a candle in terms of up from nothing to Everything Everywhere All At Once, which had an even smaller weekly decline than Top Gun (18%!) and brought in another $2 million to raise its gross to $60.6 million, the first film ever from distributer A24 to top the $60 million mark. Given its continued tiny weekly drops, it has a fighting chance to make it to $70 million and maybe even $75 million before it wraps up its run.

Opening in 7th is Bollywood action epic Vikram. The thriller opened to $1.8 million.

Two Paramount titles that both survived their premieres onto Paramount+ are in 8th and 9th. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 took in $1.7 million to run its gross to $188.3 million, while The Lost City made $1.4 million to bring its grosses to $104 million.

Opening in 10th, straight from Cannes, is the David Croenberg body horror thriller Crimes of the Future, in which Viggo Mortensen plays a performance artist whose act consists of surgeries to remove new, unnecessary organs he is constantly growing. Co-starring Kristen Stewart and Léa Seydoux, this one opens to somewhat mixed reviews, and its $1.2 million gross can probably be attributed to its star power, as it finished ahead of the week's other semi-wide thriller, Watcher, whose lead is the largely unknown Maika Monroe.

It was a nice run for Top Gun, but its likely to be taking the highway to the second-place zone this weekend, as Jurassic World: Dominion arrives to consume the rest of the box office. The third entry in the second trilogy has dinosaurs loose all over the world, and it's up to Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, along with the original Jurassic Park's trio of Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, to save the non-Jurassic parts of the world. The first World in 2015 opened to $208 million, while Fallen Kingdom in 2018 opened to $148 million. I'm guessing this will open somewhere between those two numbers, though I wouldn't be shocked if it opens higher than the first World. Just how big of a bite will Dominion take in the box office? We'll find out next week.

Ironically, Morbius, by picking up nearly a thousand theaters this weekend, was technically the weekend's biggest "new" release. And a fat lot of good it did, as the film came in 14th for the weekend, making less than the flop thriller Men and Fantastic Beasts, both playing in fewer theaters, did. I didn't really check showtime, but I'd be surprised if many of those new theaters gave Morbius more than one or two shows a day, and I'm guessing most of them have now dropped it for screen #6 of Jurassic World.

On one level, the summer movie season is going great. There have been three openings over $100 million, which is two more than the summer of 2019 had at this point. We've had two films top $400 million domestically, with another on its way there. And yet, once you get past the top titles, the mid-level films have all but completely disappeared, making a box office that is far more absurdly top-heavy than any in recent memory.

Jurassic World: Dominion won for the second weekend in a row, as the dinos chomped through another $59.2 million, to bring the franchise-closer(?) to a ten-day total of $250.3 million. This is an acceptable 60% drop from its opening, and so far the film is largely keeping pace with its predecessor, 2018's Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom, which was around $266 million at the end of its second weekend. Fallen Kingdom finished around $418 million, meaning that a $400 million final seems likely for the sixth installment of a franchise that has been going on for nearly 30 years now.

Stumbling badly into second is Lightyear, Pixar's attempt to spin off the Toy Story movies into an origin story for the Buzz Lightyear character, and the first film from the studio to hit theaters since Onward had the unfortunate timing to open only a few days before Covid-related mass shutdowns began. Plenty of ink, digital and otherwise, has already been spent trying to figure out why the film could only pull $50.6 million in its opening weekend, though I haven't seen anyone mention the ongoing struggle of animation to get a foothold in this new environment. Sing 2 is still the only animated title to hit $100 million since the beginning of 2020. Lightyear will most likely eventually join it, as its still Pixar, its really the only family-friendly film out there, other than the two-month-old The Bad Guys, and with school out now across the country, it should do well on weekdays. However, its time as the only preeminent family film out is short, as Minions: The Rise of Gru opens in only a week and a half.

Continuing to take everyone's breath away, Top Gun: Maverick flew to another $44.7 million over the weekend, which is just the 2nd-highest 4th weekend total of all time, behind only Avatar's. America's continuing contributions to the the Tom Cruise 60th Birthday Fund has brought the film to $466.8 million total, allowing it to not just pass Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness to become the year's highest-grossing film, but leave it well behind, even though the two films only passed each other early last week. At this point, it seems certain that Top Gun will be the summer's highest-grosser (only Thor: Love & Thunder might be a legitimate challenger), and could very well have clinched being the year's highest-grosser as well (besides Thor, only November's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and December's Avatar: The Way of the Water stand in the way).

After those three, the drop is precipitous. The aforementioned Doctor Strange came in fourth with $4.5 million, bringing its total to $405.3 million, an impressive haul, but given that Strange was still ahead of Top Gun just ten days ago, it also serves as a statement to just how quickly Maverick is making money. After that, The Bob's Burgers Movie brought in $1.2 million for a gross of $29.8 million, and the long-running Bad Guys made $1 million for a total of $94.3 million. And those were the only films to take in over a million last weekend.

So what's going on? The main culprit is just the utter lack of new product. If we count May 6th, the day Doctor Strange opened, as the beginning of the 2022 Summer Movie Season, we've seen only eight movies open on over a thousand screens (9, if you want to could Morbius's short-lived, ill-fated return to wide release in early June). Meanwhile, the first two weekends of May 2019 alone saw 7 wide releases. Despite being only a bit over a week away from July, June has only seen two new films go wide all month (that number will double this weekend). Even last year, counting from the first Friday in May, there were 14 new wide releases over the first 7 weekends of summer. Whether this is because of the rush by studios to send product to the streamers, or Covid-related production delays, or just cold feet to send smaller films up against the blockbusters (understandable, given that none of the four smaller films has remotely broken out, though April release The Bad Guys and March release Everything Everywhere All At Once have both been playing strongly throughout this season), the result is a great dearth of product. The situation does seem on the verge of relief, though. Right now, there are 8 films scheduled to go wide in July, and another 12 in August, and the release schedule for the rest of the year also looks relatively full. Let's keep our fingers crossed that most of those films do indeed hit the multiplexes, as the box office can't survive on dinosaurs and fighter jets alone.

Anyway, to round out the Top 10, the aforementioned Everything Everywhere finished just below a million, with a new gross of $64.9 million. Finishing well below a million was Downton Abbey: A New Era, whose gross is now $42.2 million, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which is up to $190.5 million. Opening in tenth is British arthouse comedy Brian and Charles, about a man and his homemade robot, starring no one you've ever heard of. The film brought in only $0.2 million, had a per-screen of less than $1,000, and yet is in the weekend Top 10. Those 8 new July movies can't arrive fast enough.

Two new movies open this weekend to challenge Jurassic World for the top spot. Elvis is Baz Luhrmann's biopic of the King of Rock 'n' Roll, starring Austin Butler as Presley and Tom Hanks as his manipulative manager Col. Tom Parker. This is Luhrmann's first film since The Great Gatsby became a surprise blockbuster 9 years ago. Meanwhile, The Black Phone, from Scott Derrickson, who has directed a number of cult horror hits and also the first Doctor Strange, is a supernatural horror film about a teenage boy (Mason Thames, making his film debut) kidnapped by a serial killer (Ethan Hawke) who starts getting calls from Hawke's previous victims on the titular phone in Hawke's basement. While I wouldn't be shocked to see either film topping this weekend, I also could see World threepeating. We'll find out who comes out on top next week.

Over the past weeks and months, I've mentioned multiple times about the struggles of animation in the post-pandemic theatrical marketplace. The news hasn't been all bad--The Croods: A New Age was the highest-grossing pandemic release of 2020, both Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train and Jujutsu Kaisen 0 did excellent business for anime titles, and the cultural impact of Encanto far exceeded its rather modest theatrical returns--but many animated titles largely underperformed, it not outright flopped. Going into the weekend, only Sing 2 had managed to top the $100 million mark since the beginning of 2020.

That finally changed this weekend as two animated titles broke through that barrier. Only one of them, Minions: The Rise of Gru, got much attention doing it, though, as it hit the mark after only three days in release, debuting over the 4th of July weekend with an outstanding three-day total of $107 million, by far the best start of an animated title since Frozen II in November 2019. With the grosses from Monday are factored in, the debut rises to $123.1 million. There are two other animated titles coming up later this month--Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank and DC League of Superpets, but even with the all-star casts both movies boast, neither seems likely to do anything near Minions business. Disney may still have a lock on critical acclaim and longevity, but box-office wise, with the one-two punch of Minions and Sing, especially compared to the grosses of the Mouse's three pandemic-era animated releases, it's hard not to deny that for right now, Illumination is king.

Spending its sixth straight weekend in the Top 3, Top Gun: Maverick continues to fly higher and higher. Moviegoers gave birthday boy Tom Cruise another $25.9 million over the weekend, the fourth-highest 6th weekend gross ever. The film is now at $564.6 million, and should be over the $600 million mark by next weekend. Last week I speculated that $700 million was doable, but unlikely. Unless Top Gun finally starts having normal declines, it's looking like $700 million is very likely, and maybe possibly $800 million might be on the table.

In third, last week's champ Elvis didn't hold up as well as Top Gun, of course, but it held pretty decenly, taking in $18.5 million for a ten-day total of $66.8 million. The film has become the highest-grossing adult drama of the pandemic era, and is likely to become the first one since Ford vs. Ferrari to top $100 million, a number that might put Elvis into Oscar contention (expect Austin Butler to be a dark horse Best Actor contender).

In fourth, Jurassic World: Dominion brought in $16.4 million, bringing its total to $332.5 million. It still seems likely to finish below $400 million, but still has an outside chance.

The Black Phone held up very well in 5th, earning another $12.3 million for a ten-day total of $47.4 million. Look for a final gross of between $70 and $80 million.

Getting past the $100 million mark just ahead of Minions, Lightyear took in $6.5 million for a total of $105.2 million. It seems likely to have enough to get past The Good Dinosaur, but will likely finish short of Cars 3, a number that will mark this as one of Pixar's biggest flops. We have to keep our fingers crossed that Disney won't use this as an excuse to send Pixar's next movie, Elemental, straight to Disney+ next summer.

Opening in 7th is the lightly advertised Regency-era romcom Mr. Malcolm's List, which for some reason opened in nearly 1,400 theaters instead of getting a limited release. Unsurprisingly, the very British film failed to break out on the most red, white, and blue weekend of the year, as it could only manage $0.8 million. It might be lucky to break $2 million before it heads off to await rediscovery on one of the streamers.

Rounding out the Top Ten are competing multiverse movies Everything Everywhere All at Once and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, along with the second weekend of Indian comedy Jug Jugg Jeeyo. Their grosses are $67 million, $410.6 million, and $1 million, respectively.

Minions's time on the top is likely to be short, because this weekend's big arrival is Thor: Love and Thunder. The latest MCU offering, it sees Thor (Chris Hemsworth) back in fighting shape, and dealing with both his ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman, returning to the franchise after having skipped Thor: Ragnarok) having somehow acquired superpowers of her own, and a vengeful creature (Christian Bale, under a ton of makeup) who wants to kill all gods. This one will also feature the Guardians of the Galaxy (in what will likely be a preview of their third movie next year), Russell Crowe as Zeus, and a glimpse of Hemsworth's bare butt. Ragnarok opened to $123 million back in 2017, so I'd expect this one to open at least that high, but it seems likely to open even higher. Can Thor beat Multiverse of Madness's $187 million opening? Could it potentially break past the $200 million barrier? We'll find out next weekend.

One of the more remarkable movie stats of the past couple of years is the second weekend drops of MCU titles. Thanks to strong word-of-mouth and limited competition, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings declined about 54%. The other four titles all dropped more than 60%, with Eternals dropping 64% and Black Widow, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness all dropping between 67% and 67.8%. Apparently, that's the new MCU drop number, as Thor: Love and Thunder dropped 67.7% in its second weekend.

The latest MCU entry was still able to win the weekend quite handily, however, as it earned $46.6 million, for a ten-day total of $233.9 million, making it the year's sixth title to pass the $200 million mark. That's enough to exceed the entire runs of the first two Thor movies, and it's still running well ahead of where Thor: Ragnarok was in its second weekend. It should finish higher than that film's $315.1 million, though how much higher is an open question.

Minions: The Rise of Gru continues to dominate the kids market, taking in $26.8 million to bring its total to $263.4 million. This is almost exactly where the first Minions was after three weeks in 2015. That said, Minions'15 had no animated competition, while Gru has to face DC League of Superpets in two weeks. We'll see if that will keep Gru short of Minions'15's $336 million final.

Opening in third is Where the Crawdads Sing, only the third non-franchise cog real success story of the summer. The adaption of Delia Owens's best-seller, which stars Daisy Edgar-Jones in her first lead role in a major Hollywood production, exceeded expectations, taking in $17.3 million. $50 million minimum is almost guaranteed, and with good word of mouth, it could make it to $60 or even $70 million.

After 7 weeks in the Top 3, Top Gun: Maverick finally falls to 4th, earning another $12.3 million to bring its year-leading total to $618.2 million. It should pass Star Wars: The Last Jedi in the coming days to hit 10th on the all-time domestic gross list. While it has proven in the past to be a very bad idea to sell this movie short, it now seems likely Maverick will be coming in for a landing short of $700 million. Still, this has been a sensational run for a film that, coming into the summer, was pegged as to be lucky if it hit $250 million.

Crossing the century mark is Elvis, which grossed $8 million for a total gross of $106.6 million. This is the first adult drama to hit that mark since Ford vs. Ferrari during the 2019 holidays. This looks to be heading to a final gross of between $120 and $130 million, and then awards consideration (assuming the film is placed in the Comedy/Musical category, Austin Butler should be a lock for a Golden Globe nomination).

Despite the success of Minions, animation as a genre is still struggling, as evidenced by the awful opening of Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank. The kid-friendly Blazing Saddles remake(!) could only pull in $6.3 million to open in 6th. With the title likely to be down to matinees only by next Friday, this one could end up grossing less than $15 million, or roughly 1/7th of what Saddles grossed in 1974, not adjusted for inflation.

The Black Phone, the third non-franchise success story, took in another $5.4 million to bring its total to $72.1 million. It should pass Scream in the next couple of weeks to become both the year's biggest horror movie and year's biggest R-rated movie--assuming another movie doesn't get there first. Jurassic World: Dominion continues to fade, as it brought in $5.2 million for a total of $359.9 million.

Focus hoped that adult audiences would turn out for the gentle, 50s-set comedy Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. Alas, the Downton Abbey crowd stayed home (or went to see Where the Crawdads Sing), as it could only muster up $2 million. In the past, I'd assume good word-of-mouth and subject matter that lent itself well to a long, leggy run would still allow the film to become a minor hit. That's still very possible, but it seems more likely that Mrs. Harris will struggle to get past the $5 million mark.

Rounding out the Top 10 is the summer's biggest flop, Lightyear, which brought in $1.4 million for a total of $115.6 million. At this point, it seems highly unlikely that it will be able to pass The Good Dinosaur, which would make it the lowest-grossing non-asterisk Pixar film. However, this weekend does deserve mention as the first one since June 3 to see all ten films in the Top 10 gross at least $1 million.

Only one new film opens wide this weekend, but it's one of the two films (along with August's Bullet Train) that will certainly be competing for the title of the summer's biggest non-franchise cog. Plot details on Nope have been kept tightly under wraps, but we do know it stars Keke Palmer and Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya as siblings whose rural California horse ranch comes under attack from aliens. Reviews beginning to filter out for Jordan Peele's latest have been largely positive, which should help contribute to a solid opening at #1. Will Nope be able to top the $70 million opening of Peele's Us? We'll find out next week.

A few weeks after it looked that animation had finally broken out of its extended funk with the huge opening of Minions: The Rise of Gru, it now seems clear that whatever appeal that film had didn't extend to its fellow animated titles. Lightyear is the biggest flop of the summer, and Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank barely made a ripple. Now, after expectations that it could open as high as $60 million, the latest animated title, DC League of Super-Pets, is looking like a dog.

Despite an appealing, kid-friendly premise and another pairing of its two leads Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, Super-Pets could only dig up $23 million over the weekend. Not only is that far below what Minions made over 4th of July weekend, but it's less than half of what Lightyear opened to last month. Indeed, it's a bit below what The Bad Guys, which didn't have the built-in audience that Super-Pets presumably has, opened to in April. Still, with no other family films scheduled to go wide until Lyle Lyle Crocodile arrives in early October, there's plenty of room for Super-Pets to run. Other than the little-noticed Christian comedy Family Camp, The Bad Guys had the family market all to itself for two months, and it ended up doing 4 times its opening. Super-Pets getting to, or at least near, $100 million will remove a lot of the sting.

Falling 58%, a number probably bigger than Universal would like, last week's champ, Nope, hovered into second with $18.6 million. Like with a lot of horror movies, word of mouth is somewhat mixed, but Jordan Peele's sci-fi thriller should still be reasonably profitable. The film's 10-day total is $80.6 million, and it should be the first R-rated film over $100 million in 2 1/2 years within a week or two.

In third, Thor: Love and Thunder passed $300 million with a $13.2 million weekend. The action comedy now stands at $301.6 million and should become the highest-grossing Thor-centered film in the next couple of weeks.

Also looking to pass its predecessor in the next couple of weeks is the aforementioned Minions: The Rise of Gru. The animated comedy took in $11 million for a total of $320.5 million. Like Super-Pets, Minions is likely to take advantage of the family film wasteland, and could put up some surprisingly solid holds for the next few weeks.

After 9 straight weekends of grossing over $10 million, the year's biggest smash, Top Gun: Maverick, finally fell to a 7-figure gross as it took in $8.4 million. The film has now flown to $650.3 million, and should pass Jurassic World and Titanic for 7th on the all-time domestic list soon. It still remains to be seen if there's enough to get to $700 million, but I certainly wouldn't be shocked if it makes it.

Where the Crawdads Sing continues to be a small-scale success, turning in $7.6 million to bring its total to $53.6 million. Elvis is still, for now, the summer's biggest non-franchise cog, as it grosses $5.7 million for $128.9 million.

The Black Phone creeps past Scream to become both the year's biggest horror movie and year's biggest R-rated title (though both titles will be taken by Nope by this weekend) with a $2.5 million haul to bring its total to $83.1 million. Jurassic World: Dominion continues to hang around. taking in $2.2 million for a total of $369.6 million.

Opening in tenth is Vengeance. The comedy-mystery, written, directed, and starring B.J. Novak, was able to muster up $1.8 million. Unless the film ends up being super-leggy, expect a final gross of under $5 million.

Two new films open wide this weekend. Thanks to the star power of Brad Pitt, Bullet Train looks to chug to #1 this weekend. The action comedy, which also stars Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Shannon, and Sandra Bullock (apparently returning the favor after Pitt had an extended cameo in The Lost City) sees Pitt as an assassin whose simple job to retrieve a briefcase on the titular train turns out to be a complicated mess. Expectations are surprisingly low, with some predicting only a $30 million start, which admittedly would be compatible with the start of The Lost City. Hoping to serve as counterprogramming is the comedy Easter Sunday, starring popular comedian Jo Koy in his first leading role. The autobiographical film is the first Hollywood production with an all-Filipino cast, which might help it to overcome its weird release date (seriously, why release a movie called Easter Sunday in August?). Could Bullet Train surprise and open closer to $50 million? We'll find out next week.

For weeks, the industry looked nervously at mid-August, noticing that after Bullet Train at the beginning of the month, the new releases began to look awfully meager, with hardly a blockbuster in sight for weeks. Unfortunately, at least for the first, blockbuster-less weekend, those forecasts came true as the overall box office slumped to its lowest level since February.

Bullet Train won in its second weekend, falling 55% to $13.4 million. The action comedy turns in a ten-day total of $54.5 million. That's almost exactly where The Lost City, another action comedy starring Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock, was after its second week. That's good news for Train's chances of chugging across the $100 million mark, as City finished with $105.3 million. But City also, after the first weekend, started having drops of less than 40%. If Train isn't able to stabilize, it could find itself looking up at the century mark. Luckily, the lack of major blockbusters makes it likely that Train will have better legs than a film of this type normally would have at this time of year.

After falling out of the Top 5 last weekend, Top Gun: Maverick flies all the way back to second, with an actual increase over last weekend. The massive blockbuster, currently sitting at #7 on the all-time domestic list, made $7.1 million in its 12th weekend, the ninth best 12th weekend of all time (and some of the movies higher on the list had been in limited release at the beginning of their runs). The film now stands at $673.7 million. The film will finally be available for digital purchase in the next few days, but not rental for a few more weeks, which should help keep it flying toward $700 million.

In third, DC League of Super-Pets had somewhat super hold, taking in $7 million, for a total of $58.2 million. It continues to track pretty closely with April's The Bad Guys, as Guys had better weekends and Pets has better weekdays. As more and more kids start school over the next couple of weeks, those weekday grosses are going to dry up, though, so Pets better start pulling more weight on weekends if it hopes to hit $100 million.

Thor: Love and Thunder took in $5.4 million for fourth, with its total standing at $325.5 million. Nope passed $100 million during the course of last week, the twelfth film of the year to do so, and took in $5.4 million over the weekend to arrive at $107.6 million.

Also before the weekend, Minions: The Rise of Gru passed the first Minions, and took in $5 million over the weekend for a gross of $343.8 million. It has an outside chance of earning the additional $25 million necessary to pass Despicable Me 2 to become the overall franchise's highest grosser. Where the Crawdads Sing took in $4 million to bring its total to $72.2 million. It looks to finish north of $80 million.

In 8th, the first of the weekend's newcomers was Bodies Bodies Bodies. The horror comedy was only able to dig up $3.3 million. As the film had opened in limited release last weekend, its ten-day total stands at $3.6 million, and these bodies will be lucky to top $10 million.

With Bullet Train and Nope unlikely to catch up, Elvis looks to be the surprise winner of the summer's biggest non-franchise film. The biopic took in $2.6 million to bring its total to $141.3 million. Uncharted, currently the year's highest-grossing non-franchise player, is within striking distance.

Opening in tenth is the thriller Fall, which could only climb to $2.5 million.

In one very positive sign, though, a whopping 15 movies finished above $1 million for the weekend, a turnaround from earlier this summer when a film made the Top 10 with just a $0.2 million gross. In 11th is Easter Sunday, with $2.4 million and a ten-day gross of $10 million. Opening in 12th is the Indian film Laal Singh Chaddha, a remake of, of all thing, Forrest Gump. The dramady took in $1.5 million over the weekend and $1.8 million since its opening last Wednesday. The 40th anniversary IMAX re-release of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial had plenty of people phoning home after the movie to tell others to come. It took in $1.1 million. The new comedy Mack & Rita could only manage $1 million and 14th despite both the widest of the new releases and starring Diane Keaton. Finally, The Black Phone is wrapping up a very successful run, taking in $1 million to bring its gross to $87.7 million.

This weekend sees two wide releases, both of which has a strong shot of knocking off Bullet Train. Beast stars Idris Elba, whose trip to the African Savanna turns into a fight for survival when a rogue lion starts stalking them. This sounds a bit like Crawl, the thriller about a father and daughter being menaced by gators in their flooded house, that was a sleeper hit in 2019. Meanwhile, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero seeks to follow in the footsteps of the last Dragon Ball movie to hit American theaters, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, which took in a surprising $30 million back in 2019. With Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train and Jujitsu Kaisen 0 being legitimate hits at the US box office in the last couple of years, Super Hero could continue to show the strength of anime in North America. Will Dragon Ball have a super opening? Will Beast prove to be a box office beauty? Or will Bullet Train track its way back to #1? We'll find out next week.

Despite what should be a lucrative three-day weekend with Labor Day, big studios have always treated this time of year as a dumping ground, usually sending low-budget comedies, low-budget horror, and films greenlit as awards contenders that won't be winning any awards out to die in late August and early September. Last year, the one-two-three punch of Free Guy, Candyman, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings suggested that Hollywood shouldn't have been sleeping on this part of the year. However, with the logjam at effects houses backing up blockbusters, Hollywood has gone back to its old habit of cleaning out the cupboard at the end of summer and throwing out what they find in the back into multiplexes nationwide.

Leading the charge on this spectacularly awful weekend, attendance-wise was The Invitation. The PG-13 horror film, in which Game of Thrones and Fast and Furious vet Nathalie Emmanuel learns that her long-lost family is actually a nest of vampires took #1 despite only earning $6.8 million. That's the worst performance for a #1 movie in over a year, since Spiral led with just $4.6 million in mid-May 2021, right before A Quiet Place Part II and Cruella brought movie theaters back to life. Unfortunately, a title of the caliber of either of those isn't on the horizon for weeks. As for The Invitation, bad word of mouth could mean the party is over before it hits $20 million.

Chugging up one spot to second is the long-running Bullet Train, which took $5.6 million for a total of $78.2 million. It is still keeping pace with The Lost City, falling only a million behind that action-comedy also starring Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock. With little competition, there's no reason to think that Train is going to derail anytime soon on its way to $100 million.

Beast was anything but in its third weekend, as it fell 58% to $4.9 million. This gives the Idris Elba vs. lion thriller a ten-day total of $20.1 million. It looks to be headed to a final gross of around $30 million. That's somewhat of a disappointment, but at least it is doing significantly better than Elba's other late August movie (more on that one in a minute).

Continuing to fly high is Top Gun: Maverick. The actioner scored another $4.7 million as it brings its total to $691.2 million. It should fly past $700 million in the next couple of weeks, which would be enough to land in the all time domestic Top 5. $700 million is a tough challenge for the only two holiday movies that might be able challenge Maverick for the title of 2022's top movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: Way of the Water.

After a spectacular debut last weekend, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero tumbled back to Earth this weekend, falling a whopping 78% to $4.7 million, a drop that could easily make Super Hero one of the most front-loaded wide releases of all time. The animated action flick fought to a ten-day total of $30.9 million. That's enough to push it past the gross of Dragon Ball Super: Broly from 2019, and it should pass the gross of Jujitsu Kaisen 0 from earlier this year as well. However, it likely has no chance of catching Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train, which will remain the highest-grossing non-Pokémon anime in North America.

DC League of Super-Pets was able to bark up $4.1 million for a total of $74 million. It's still staying steady with the gross of April release The Bad Guys, but the film's ability to make up for so-so weekends with strong weekdays is rapidly coming to an end. This is the final week that any kids will not be back to school, so expect weekday grosses to drop significantly off very soon. Pets better hope that the lack of any other kid-friendly titles out will help propel its box office through September.

Opening terribly in 7th is Three Thousand Years of Longing, starring Idris Elba as a djinn who grants Tilda Swinton three wishes. The George Miller-directed film, described by some as Aladdin for adults, couldn't even wish up three million dollars of income, as it could only manage $2.9 million, or about 5% of the production budget. This one definitely has the potential to be a cult hit someday, but as for today, all the wishes in the world probably won't carry it past $10 million.

Rounding out the Top 10, Minions: The Rise of Gru made $2.7 million for a total of $354.8 million, Thor: Love and Thunder made $2.6 million for a total of $336.5 million, and Where the Crawdads Sing made $2.3 million for a total of $81.9 million.

Outside the Top Ten, the IMAX re-release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story did decent business, taking $1.1 million. Meanwhile, Star Wars vet John Boyega's new thriller Breaking got off to an awful start, only taking in $1 million.

For theater owners hoping for some relief, this Labor Day weekend probably won't provide it. The biggest new release is the religious satire Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul, starring Sterling K. Brown as a megachurch pastor attempting a comeback after a scandal, and Regina Hall as his loving wife, who appears to be the power behind the throne. The fact it's also debuting on Peacock is an indication that Universal/Focus doesn't have much faith in the film's box office potential. Also out is a pair of re-releases. Jaws swims back into theaters ahead of its 50th anniversary in a couple of years, while Spider-Man: No Way Home, which has yet to reach its first anniversary, swings back into multiplexes with 15 minutes of extra footage. Will last year's biggest film bring moviegoers back out? Could audiences decide to honk for Honk for Jesus? Could more people decide to accept The Invitation this weekend? Or could Bullet Train chug back to the top spot? We'll find out next week.