Some kids went back to school this week and apparently most of the others stayed home this weekend. Traditionally, August has typically had a hit from the start and perhaps a steady flow of business as people catch up on some of their late summer favorites. But times aren’t quite traditional yet, and studios just aren’t delivering much right now to get asses in seats. Maybe everyone is at home on their couch watching Prey on Hulu. Whatever the case, a slew of new films have opened, not all of them have cracked the top 10, and the No. 1 film has hit its lowest level in over 20 years this half of August.
King of the Crop: $13.4 million bullet train quietly pulls into station
fast train took the lead once again, but only with $13.4 million. how low is that Shutdown year 2020 aside, we haven’t seen a No. 1 this low in the first half of August since Paul Verhoeven’s Hollow Man led for a second week at $13 million in August 2000. Before that, it was Saving Private Ryan’s fourth week at the top of the charts in 1998 with $13.1 million. Now some believe there’s hope David Leitch’s film can still hit $100 million, so let’s explore that. After 10 days, it has earned $54.3 million. That puts it firmly between the earnings of Tropic Thunder and Collateral, which brought in $110 and $101 million, respectively. Hope springs forever. However, both films grossed over $16 million in their second weeks after openings of $25.8 and $24.7 million. So these tracks are not aligned.
As mentioned in last week’s column, Sony wanted a figure around $18 million if the film had the bare minimum of hope of hitting nine figures. Tropic Thunder and Collateral each had solid word of mouth and losses ranging from 34% to 38% on their second and third weekends respectively. This weekend, Bullet Train narrowly surpassed its third weekend with $11.5 and $10.1 million. Last week we also compared Brad Pitt’s numbers to the feature film The Dukes of Hazzard, which ended up grossing just over $80 million. This week, Bullet Train even fell behind the pace of that movie. Hazzard had $57.4 million after 10 days and a $13 million second weekend. Even with a lackluster market on the horizon, those numbers will still fall even if they stay in the top five through mid-September. Not even Sony would have thought that Bullet Train would go to the finish line in a horse race with Where The Crawdads Sing. The latter, which is up 34% on the Tomatometer, has surged to over $72 million and is expected to end its run at around $80 million. If Bullet Train keeps its grand total above $6 million next week, its estimate is likely to go up.
Rotten Returns: Mack & Rita fails to find an audience
Almost any of the new movies released this week could fall into this category, but the title goes to the Diane Keaton-led one Mack and Rita. The film, which was released in 2,000 theaters, grossed a mere $1.09 million for a per-theater average of just $567. It’s the second-worst PTA of 2022 for a film released in over 2,000 venues, behind Studio 666 ($668) and ahead of only The King’s Daughter ($334). The film scored 26% from critics, but an even worse “D+” from cinemagoers surveyed by Cinemascore. Only 10 other films have received less than a “C-” since 2018, and this is the second “D+” in 2022 after Alex Garland’s Men received one in May.
The Top 10 and Beyond: Business as Usual, as Top Gun: Maverick continues to make money
Check out some of those movies that moviegoers might still want to catch up with, we have Jordan Peele’s nope, which surpassed the $100 million mark during the week. Another $5.3 million this weekend brings the total to $107.5 million. That’s some positive news as we compared the numbers to those of Luc Besson’s Lucy and this week Nope finally started to take the lead as the two films’ 24-day numbers are closely aligned, but Lucy deserved it just $3.4 million in his fourth weekend, suggesting Nope’s numbers could get closer to $130 million when all is settled. DC League of Superbeasts Right now, it’s looking somewhere above Monster House numbers with $7.17 million this weekend and a total of $58.2 million. That’s just over a million ahead of House’s third weekend and 17-day trip, adding a full $10 million to last week’s final league estimates to between $75 million and $80 million (which is still well under budget of 90 million US dollars).
Top Gun Maverick I certainly didn’t dive this weekend. In fact, it went back up to $7.15 million. That’s an increase from last week’s total of $673.8 million. That may still be $20 million behind Black Panther in its 12th week, but Maverick has more than doubled what the Marvel film did over the same weekend and is nearing its sixth film ever to gross $700 million. Paramount also had the Indian remake of Forrest Gump, Laal Singh Chaddhawhich grossed $1.4 million from 516 theaters, for an average of $2,713 per theater.
However, two of the other big hits of the summer continue to add to their totals Minions: The Rise of Gru may have suffered a slight setback when it challenged The Secret Life of Pets as Illumination’s top-grossing domestic film. While Rise of Gru fell just $3 million behind the pace after its seventh weekend, Rise of Gru’s $4.9 million fell short of Pets’ $5.8 million mark. Don’t rule it out, though, as Minions will likely stay in the top 10 through mid-September. Thor: Love and Thunder exceeded $700 million worldwide this week. It’s still over $130 million short of Ragnarok’s total despite being beaten in North America. It has the 10th-best domestic total ever for a July release after 38 days and has a chance of hitting $350 million as it ties very well with the sixth weekend of the first Minions film ($5.14 million). matches and cost about $13 million before this movie and ended up with $336 million. The Rise of Gru, on the other hand, is close to $800 million worldwide.
A24 body body body, which premiered at SXSW (it remains Certified Fresh at 90%) and opened last week in six theaters with the fourth-best pro cinema average of the year, didn’t reach the broad audiences it wanted this weekend. The film grossed just $3.2 million in 1,275 theaters, which actually averages about the same as the studio’s numerous releases. While Hereditary ($4,580), Spring Breakers ($4,401) and The Witch ($4,301) remain their best films to release in 1,000+ screens in their first or second weekend, Bodies Bodies Bodies’ $2,520 PTA matches Mid90s (2,473 $), The Green Knight ($2,434), Midsommar ($2,423) and It Comes At Night ($2,364). If only they could put Marcel the Shell With Shoes On in that category, but its release peaked in its sixth week of release with 821 theaters and then lost 40% of those screens the following week; it will bring in less than $6 million.
Also new this week was Lions Gate’s first theatrical release since April’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. The Survival Movie autumn opened in 1,548 theaters at just $2.5 million for a $1,618 PTA. The studio hasn’t had a PTA over $3,000 since Knives Out in 2019, and the sequel to that film is headed to Netflix. Last weeks Easter Sunday dropped out of the top 10 just behind Fall, bringing his grand total to $9.9 million. And finally Steven Spielberg’s IMAX re-release ET the extraterrestrial grossed $1.1 million in just 360 theaters for a PTA of $3,055, just a bit higher than Bullet Train, which earned it the highest PTA in the Top 10 this week.
On the Vine: Idris Elba’s beast hopes to trip a bullet train
Next week, Universal hopes to reclaim first place at the box office with Idris Elba and some lions animal opens. The Ghost and the Darkness, starring Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer, started in 1996 with $9.2 million. A No. 1 spot over Bullet Train would tie Universal with Disney for most box office wins this summer with five.
Full list of box office results: 12th-14th Aug 2022
53%
Bullet Train (2022)
- $13.4 million ($54.5 million total)
72%
DC League of Superbeasts (2022)
- $7.17 million ($58.4 million total)
96%
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
- $7.15 million ($673.8 million total)
65%
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
- $5.31 million ($325.4 million total)
82%
No (2022)
- $5.3 million ($107.5 million total)
70%
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)
- $4.9 million ($343.7 million total)
34%
Where the Crayfish Sing (2022)
- $4 million ($72.2 million total)
90%
body body body (2022)
- $3.3 million ($3.6 million total)
78%
Elvis (2022)
- $2.6 million ($141.3 million total)
73%
Autumn (2022)
- $2.5 million ($2.5 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week rating the box office results on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness podcast.
[box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail by Scott Garfield/©Sony Pictures Entertainment
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