The Marvel flick ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ stayed atop the box office last weekend as expected. Less expected was the 68% drop it took from its debut weekend. Hammering out $46.6 million for the weekend sets up Jordan Peele’s new sci-fi horror, ‘Nope’, for an easy win next weekend. ‘Nope’ is estimated to make north of $50 million Friday through Sunday.
Animation, as always, still holds sway.
‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ held second spot with $26.8 million, a 46% drop from the previous weekend. The latest installment from the popular franchise will hold in the Weekend Box Office Top 5 without seeing real competition until ‘DC’s League of Super-Pets’ releases July 29th.
The only debut to make it into the Weekend Box Office Top 5 last weekend was the mystery ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’. Based on the popular novel by Delia Owens, the film is produced by Reese Witherspoon and stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and David Strathairn. It also features an original song by Taylor Swift which will likely be nominated for major awards.
Some of the box office may have been boosted with the added publicity of scandal.
The author of ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’, Delia Owens, is wanted for questioning for an unsolved murder in Zambia that occurred in the mid-1990’s.
Holdovers ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and ‘Elvis’ round out the Weekend Box Office Top 5. ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ has proven to be the movie of the year with the most positive reviews and the highest grossing film not only for Tom Cruise but for Paramount as well. The film has made over $1 billion globally to date to become, currently, the 10th highest grossing film of all time. Much of its success has been attributed to practical effects as all other Hollywood films are too often nothing more than CGI extravaganzas.
‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ may not stay so mighty for much longer.
Jordan Peele’s ‘Nope’ has generated a ton of positive buzz as his blend of humor and horror continues to please audiences after previous success with ‘Get Out’ and ‘Us’. After that, it will be ‘DCs League of Super-Pets’ followed a week later by ‘Bullet Train’, an actioner starring Brad Pitt, competing for box office prominence. Then, the summer dumping ground.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (July 15 – 17, 2022)
- ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ – $46.6 million – fantasy (drop $97.6 million, 68% down)
- ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ – $26.8 million – animated (drop $19.3 million, 42% down)
- ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ – $17.3 million – mystery (debut)
- ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ – $12.3 million – war (drop $3.2 million, 21% down)
- ‘Elvis’ – $8 million – biopic (drop $3.2 milion, 29% down)
Total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 is $111 million. This is a drop of $114.6 million, a 51% decrease from last weekend’s total of $225.6 million.