‘Top Gun 2’ Passes ‘Iron Man 3’ As ‘Jurassic World 3’ Tops $900 Million

In holdover news that isn’t about Thor: Love and Thunder, Universal and Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru earned another $26 million (-44%) for a $262.6 million 17-day domestic total. Simply put, Minions 2 opened on par with Minions ($115 million) but is thus far legging out like Despicable Me 3 (which eventually grossed $272 million from a $99 million Fri-Tues launch in 2017). At this rate of descent, the $80 million animated prequel (to Despicable Me) and sequel (to Minions) will end its run with between $336 million and $371 million domestic. That is possibly higher than where Thor: Love and Thunder ends up (between $324 million and $370 million) and wherever Jurassic World Dominion ($370-$375 million) finishes domestically. We’ll see if Minions 2 ends up the fifth-biggest earner of the summer or the third biggest behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($412 million) and Top Gun: Maverick ($617 million and still soaring).

It earned another $44.426 million (-34%) for a $270.143 million overseas cume and a $532.7811 million global total. That makes it the eighth Illumination flick to pass $500 million and the first since Frozen II ($1.45 billion) in late 2019. It has opened essentially everywhere (China and Russia are obviously “to be determined”), save for South Korea on July 20 and Italy on August 18, where Minions earned a combined $41 million in 2015. Offhand, presuming a conventional rate of descent, Minions 2 is looking at a final worldwide cume of at least $750 million global. However, it’s running 13% behind Minions (which cracked $1.16 billion in 2015) and +3% above Despicable Me 3 (which earned $1 billion in 2017), so it could still end up alongside Top Gun: Maverick in the winner’s circle. But yeah, we can now officially put Despicable Me 4 near the top of next summer’s likely biggest grossers list.

Paramount and Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick earned another $12 million (-23%) in weekend eight for a $617 million domestic cume. That’s the fourth-biggest wide release eighth weekend behind Titanic ($23 million in 1998), Avatar ($22.85 million in 2010) and Home Alone ($12.6 million in 1991). It has topped Incredibles 2 ($608 million) to become the biggest “part two” sequel of all time in domestic earnings. In terms of global earnings for “part two” installments, it sits behind only Incredibles 2 ($1.243 billion), Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.405 billion) and Frozen II ($1.45 billion). It has passed Beverly Hills Cop ($234 million in 1984/$616 million adjusted) to place eighth among Paramount’s biggest “tickets sold” hits (Titanic is obviously tops with $1.2 billion in adjusted grosses). With $1.236 billion (past Iron Man 3 and The Fate of the Furious), it is currently the fifth-biggest global grosser ever to not come from Disney or Universal. However, Spider-Man: No Way Home came from the MCU, and Disney now owns Avatar.

Warner Bros.’ Elvis passed $100 million domestic on Friday and earned $7.6 million (-32%) to bring its 24-day cume to $106.2 million domestic and $186 million worldwide. The Austin Butler/Tom Hanks flick has passed movie theater savior Godzilla Vs. Kong ($100 million) and will pass Dune ($108 million) this coming week and become WB’s second-biggest domestic earner since Joker ($335 million in October of 2019) behind The Batman ($370 million). Top Gun 2 and Elvis show, along with the $17 million debut of Where the Crawdads Sing (and presumably Nope’s big debut next weekend), the “I’m still standing” strength of older and irregular moviegoers when the right movie is available and sold as an actual event. Once again, Warner Bros. Discovery is more than Batman and Harry Potter, and they remain the best at turning unconventional events into theatrical smash hits. I’m newly optimistic for DC League of Super-Pets (opening July 29) and Don’t Worry Darling (opening September 23).

The Black Phone pushed Blumhouse’s lifetime total past $5 billion. Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill’s acclaimed and buzzy horror flick (based on a short story from Joe Hill) earned another $5.31 million (-32%) in its fourth weekend while debuting on PVOD. That gives the $19 million flick a $72 million domestic and $114.6 million worldwide cume. Universal and Amblin’s Jurassic World Dominion earned another $4.9 million (-42%) while arriving on PVOD to bring its domestic cume to $359.7 million. It crossed $150 million in China and passed $900 million worldwide. Offhand, we’re looking at a $375 million domestic and $935 million global cume. Pixar’s Lightyear earned $1.2 million in weekend five. That gives Disney’s $200 million Toy Story spin-off a $116 million domestic and $213 million worldwide cume. A24’s delightful Marcel the Shell with Shoes On expanded to just 153 theaters. The winning family-friendly fantasy earned $575,370 (+68%) for a $1.695 million 24-day cume.