The four-day holiday weekend saw animated ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ defeat all competition at the box office.
The latest installment in the ‘Minions’ franchise, a spin-off of the ‘Despicable Me’ franchise, took in $107 million Friday through Sunday with an added $16 million on Monday, the Fourth of July. It’s $123 million total surpassed expectations of most box office analysts. ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ kept ahead of other popular titles currently in theaters by nearly a full $100 million.
Tom Cruise defied gravity yet again as ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ gained 9% over last weekend bringing in $32.2 million. That’s $25.9 million Friday through Sunday with an added $6.3 million Monday.
That film is flying much better than the musical biopic ‘Elvis’ which dropped 25% in its sophomore weekend. Earning $18.5 million Friday through Sunday with an added $5 million Monday, Baz Luhrmann’s look at the King of Rock & Roll totals at $23.5 million.
Dinosaurs still hold sway over theater audiences.
‘Jurassic World Dominion’ dug up $16.4 million Friday through Sunday with an added $3.2 million Monday. The total for the film, starring Chris Pratt, stands at $19.6 million marking a 27% decline from the previous weekend.
Dialing up the end of the Weekend Box Office Top 5 is the horror flick ‘The Black Phone’, starring Ethan Hawke. Holding the line with $12.2 million Friday through Sunday with a follow up of $1.9 million Monday. The total of $14.1 million marks a 40% drop from its debut weekend which is average for sophomore weekends in general.
‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ is expected to drop considerably next weekend.
‘Thor: Love & Thunder’, the latest Marvel entry starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, will be top of the box office for the next two weekends at least. Reviews for the film have leaned mostly negative causing social media to question the validity of movie review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times calls the latest MCU film “pointless”. Over in the Seattle Times, Scott Greenstone sums up the problem with so many contemporary movies when he states “‘Thor 4’ is the worst Marvel movie, because it’s not a movie – it’s content.” Surprisingly, Owen Gleiberman, who hasn’t been the biggest fan of recent Marvel movies as evidenced by previous negative reviews, gave ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ a positive review in Variety.
Reviews, good or bad, will do practically nothing to diminish the films box office when it opens this coming Friday. Though it may dampen its longevity on the big screen.
This bodes well for Jordan Peele’s sci-fi horror film ‘Nope’ releasing July 22 and may even help the animated ‘DC League of Super-Pets’ due for release July 29.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (July 1 – 4, 2022 Independence Day Holiday)
- ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ – $123 million – animation (debut)
- ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ – $32.2 million – war (gain $2.6 million, 9% up)
- ‘Elvis’ – $23.5 million – biopic (drop $7.7 million, 25% down)
- ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ – $19.6 million – sic-fi (drop $7.1 million, 27% down)
- ‘The Black Phone’ – $14.1 million – horror (drop $9.5 million, 40% down)
Total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 is $212.4 million. This is an increase of $83.1 million, 64% higher, than last weekend’s total of $129.3 million.