Maverick’ Passes $1.4 Billion As ‘Bullet Train’ Tops $150 Million

In holdover news at the weekend box office, Sony’s Bullet Train earned another $8 million (-43%) in weekend three for a $68.895 million 17-day domestic total. Once again, it’s pulling legs on par with Hobbs & Shaw, which closed out summer 2019. That Fast and Furious spin-off earned 1.3x its respective $133.78 million 17-day total, which would give the Brad Pitt-starring actioner a $90-$100 million domestic finish (it’s still on par with The Lost City). As such, the difference between commercial success and (in raw theatrical at least) commercial failure for the David Leitch-directed, $90 million adaptation would be decided by overseas earnings. With $150 million global thus far, if it plays like Hobbs & Shaw (not even counting China and Russia) and triples its domestic gross worldwide, it’s a hit. Otherwise, well, that’s what Netflix paying big bucks for that first-pay TV window is for.

Paramount and Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick spent Friday passing the $678.815 million lifetime cume of Avengers: Infinity War to become the sixth-biggest domestic grosser of all time. It grossed $5.85 million (-17%) in weekend 12 for a new $683.375 million domestic cume. Even a normal rate of descent from this point would give it $693 million. Passing Black Panther’s $700 million cume will be less mission: impossible and more mission: difficult. Even with its digital PVOD release on Tuesday, ‘mission: difficult’ should be a walk in the park for the Tom Cruise actioner. With $1.403 billion worldwide, it is days away from the $1.405 billion global gross of Avengers: Age of Ultron to become the second biggest ‘part two’ sequel ever. Frozen II ($1.45 billion) might be a bridge too far, but it’ll be close and Top Gun 2 may have another few miracles up its sleeve.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s DC League of Super Pets, which should have been called DC Super Pets, earned $5.775 million (-18%) in weekend four for a $66.5 million 24-day domestic total. It’s the last big animated film until Walt Disney’s Strange World over Thanksgiving weekend, so an $80 million finish is not out of the question for the $90 million Dwayne Johnson/Kevin Hart animated comedy. Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder earned $3.81 million (-29%) over the weekend for a $332 million domestic cume. It is also benefiting from the last kid-friendly tentpole until, in its case, Black Adam on October 21. For all the “Thor 4 is a bomb!” nonsense, it’ll pass the $333-$336 million likes of Guardians of the Galaxy, Aquaman, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Joker and Spider-Man 3. Meanwhile, it’s at $737 million worldwide, more than what Thor: Ragnarök earned sans China and Russia.

Universal and Monkeypaw’s Nope earned a $3.55 million (-33%) weekend and $113.76 million domestic and $133.029 million worldwide cume. That’s not great for a $69 million release, but PVOD will likely ride to the rescue. Considering the current slashing and burning at Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast can easily spin losing a few bucks on a Jordan Peele original as part of their ‘Universal is a safe space for filmmakers’ narrative. Besides, Peele can always ask Gru to fund his next social thriller, as Minions: The Rise of Gru earned another $3.52 million (-30%) domestic to pass $350 million. It earned another $26.695 million overseas, including a soft $11.79 million in China (compared to Despicable Me 3 opening with $64 million in 2017), for a new $833.6 million global cume. We can expect a worldwide finish of over/under $900 million for the $80 million sequel/prequel.

Sony’s Where the Crawdads Sing earned $3.15 million (-26%) weekend and $77.725 million domestic and $97.8 million global cume. Once again, the summer’s only ‘big’ movie for women is legging out accordingly. A24’s Bodies Bodies Bodies expanded to 2,541 theaters in its third weekend. The Generation Z-targeted whodunnit grossed $2.412 million (-20%) weekend for a $7.439 million 17-day domestic cume. That means at least Bodies Bodies Bodies will likely match the $11 million cume of X from earlier this year. I’ll count that as a relative win, as this small-scale, star-lite horror comedy was never going to be a blockbuster. WBD’s Elvis earned $1.95 million (-24%) over the weekend while dominating VOD platforms. With $144.82 million domestic thus far, it’ll soon pass The Great Gatsby ($144.85 million, also from Warner Bros.) to become Baz Luhrmann’s biggest unadjusted domestic grosser ever. Lionsgate’s Fall earned $1.33 million (-47%) for a $4.944 million ten-day cume.

Universal and Amblin’s Jurassic World Dominion earned $550,000 (-25%) domestic for a new $373.8 million cume as it entered the physical media/priced-to-rent post-theatrical afterlife. It’ll be on Peacock early next month, but it has still grossed $984.7 million worldwide on a $185 million budget. It may just miss the $1 billion mark, but I think Comcast will cope. In other Universal news, Jo Koy’s Easter Sunday earned $900,000 (-63%) in weekend three. That gives Amblin’s $17 million comedy an $11.9 million 17-day cume. Blumhouse’s The Black Phone earned another $520,000 (49%) to bring its domestic cume to $88.683 million and its global cume past $150 million on a $19 million budget. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial grossed just $250,000 (-77%) in weekend two of its IMAX-centric reissue for a mere $439 million domestic cume. Tough break for Steven Spielberg; here’s hoping The Fabelmans gives him a much-needed comeback.