By Chris Kavan - 08/03/22 at 12:28 PM CT
As summer winds down, it seems the box office is doing the same as DC League of Super Pets had a decent though not spectacular opening while Jordon Peele's Nope took a 58% spill. While there is one more guaranteed hit coming - the next two months are going to be rough for the box office and we may not get much fireworks until late fall. If the box office is slowing down the MPAA is following suit with yet another one-film entry.
The box office may not quite be down and out just yet but things are definitely coming down from the summer high we saw in May - early July. DC League of Super-Pets opened atop the box office with $23 million which is certainly nothing to sneeze at but is more The Bad Guys ($24 million) than Minions ($107 million). Featuring the voices of Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Diego Luna, Natasha Lyonne, Vanessa Bayer, Marc Maron, Thomas Middleditch and Keanu Reeves (among others) - the sets aside the Justice League and lets their pets (and some other shelter buddies) a chance to shine and save the day. If it follows a similar path to Bad Guys it should wind up at around $100 million domestic - depending on how much families decides to go out before school starts up again. It is doing better on the international front with $18.1 million (about 37% ahead of The Bad Guys) and thus the $89 million film already has over $41 million worldwide and should have no problem reaching profitability even if it doesn't set the world on fire.
In second place Peel's Nope took a 58.1% hit for a second weekend of $18.58 million and a new $80.6 million total. That drop is a bit more than Us (53%) but not surprising given this has proven more divisive than his previous two films. It has $68 million - and plenty of advertising as well - so the bigger question is how it will do in its international launch come August and that may make or break whether it truly can hit the black.
In the third place position Thor: Love and Thunder took a 41.6% hit and added in $13.17 million, crossing the $300 million mark with a new $301.6 million total. At this time it should only be a week away from topping Thor: Ragnarok ($315 million) to become the highest-grossing of the Thor MCU films - at least domestically. On the global scene it has $662 million but Ragnarok's $854 million may be out of reach as both China (at $112 million) and Russian (at $23.6 million) had significant contributions to its global total.
In fourth place, Minions: The Rise of Gru dipped 39.2% for a $10.96 million weekend a new $320.49 million total. It is fast approaching the $336 million total of the original Minions and still has a chance of catching up to Despicable Me 2 ($368 million) to take the Despicable Me franchise crown. It would be a nice way to end the summer but even if it falls short, $710 million global is a mighty accomplishement.
Rounding out the top five we find the nigh-unstoppable Top Gun: Maverick - down a mere 18.1% now in its TENTH weekend in theaters for a $8.4 million weekend and a whopping $650.3 million total. It just keeps flying on and on and on - and climbing the ranks with Jurassic World ($653 million) and Titanic ($659 million) next to pass and should land in seventh place all time by this time next week. It has earned $1.32 billion worldwide - good enough for 16th place all time on that front.
Outside the top five: B.J. Novak's Vengeance had a semi-wide opening in under 1000 theaters and grabbed $1.755 million in 10th place. It's looking to make more on the VOD market soon but expect a total of $6 million or so.
Also of note, Scott Derrickson's horror film The Black Phone, starring Ethan Hawke is (briefly) the highest-grossing non-sequel horror film of the pandemic era, as well as the highest-grossing horror film of 2022 with $83.1 million (topping Scream at $81.6 million) and while both marks are soon to be eclipsed by Nope, that is still an impressive total and should be noted.
This Friday brings what looks to be the summer's last big film in Brad Pitt's Bullet Train while we also get the YA horror film Bodies Bodies Bodies along with Jo Koy's Filipino family comedy Easter Sunday.
Last week brought a huge list and yet but a single film worth mentioning. This week the list is much shorter but the result is the same - just one major release.
That major release is the fourth entry in the steamy YA romance based off a story originally conceived as One Direction fan fiction, After Ever Happy starring Josephine Langford (Tessa) and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (Hardin) as the opposites attract lovers who have been through a lot with After, After We Collided and After We Fell to arrive at the end point. Things aren't about to get any easier for the couple as one final revelation about their families remains - one that causes Tessa to question everything and withdraw from everyone - including her soul mate. Much like the 50 Shades films, I haven't even attempted to get into this series and so have no idea what people see in this, but it has managed to get to a fourth film so there must be something there that appeals to women or couples or One Direction fans - or a bit of all three - so more power to finishing strong. Rated R for language throughout, some sexual content and brief drug material.
Once again, that is all you get but, like always, you can check out the full MPAA Ratings Bulleting below:
AFTER EVER HAPPY
Rated R for language throughout, some sexual content and brief drug material.
AMERICAN MURDERER
Rated R for pervasive language, drug use, some sexual content/nudity and violence.
DEAD FOR A DOLLAR
Rated R for violence, some sexual content/graphic nudity and language.
GUARDIANS OF TIME
Rated PG for some peril and brief mild violence.
IS THAT BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU?
Rated R for nudity, some sexual content, language, violence and drug material.
JEEPERS CREEPERS: REBORN
Rated R for violence, gore and language.
MONA LISA AND THE BLOOD MOON
Rated R for language throughout, sexual material and some violence.
ON THE COME UP
Rated PG-13 for strong language, sexual references, thematic elements, some violence and drug material.
A PLACE IN THE FIELD
Rated R for language and brief drug use.
THE RAILWAY CHILDREN RETURN
Rated PG for thematic material, some violence and language.
STARS AT NOON
Rated R for sexual content, nudity, language and some violence.
TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER AND THE EMERALD TABLET
Rated PG for action/peril, rude humor and language.
THE VOLCANO: RESCUE FROM WHAKAARI
Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.
