Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness continues to lose altitude, while Downton Abbey: A New Era succeeds in drawing older audiences back to the multiplexes.
The box office continues to be dominated by Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. The latest MCU entry stabilized a bit after last week's free fall, losing only half its business from the weekend before. The sci-fi superhero entry took in $32.3 million to bring its total to $342.8 million. That puts it less than $25 million behind The Batman. While $400 million is not guaranteed, it does appear that the film has a decent-to-solid chance of getting there.
Opening in second is Downton Abbey: A New Era, the second theatrical sequel to the beloved 2010-2015 British period soap. Its opening of $16 million is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, it opened to only about half of what the first Downton Abbey opened to in September 2019. On the other, its opening is the best for a straightforward adult drama in the pandemic era, besting the Thanksgiving opening of House of Gucci by a little over a million. Plus, the film skewed old, with the majority of its audience being above 35. Older adults have been the most reluctant to come back to the theater in the wake of Covid, and this opening is a sign that, slowly but surely, they are beginning to return. We'll see if that can translate into a decent pair of legs for the film in the coming weeks.
Holding up very well in third and fourth are long-running family hits The Bad Guys and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The former was able to take in $6.1 million for a total of $74.4 million, while the latter brought in $4.1 million for a total of $181.2 million. The film is now available on Paramount +, and we'll see if its arrival for home viewing--at least by those with an account with the streaming service--will hurt it at the box office in the coming weeks.
Opening in fifth is the psychological horror thriller Men. The Alex Garland-directed movie, which stars Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear, could only manage a $3.3 million opening. While this one does have the makings of a cult hit, it, like several other wannabe cult films this spring, will have to wait and overcome mediocre box office.
A wannabe cult film that didn't wait for rediscovery down the line, Everything Everywhere All At Once continues to be the sleeper smash of the spring, earning another $3.1 million to bring its total to $52.3 million. The sci-fi action comedy has now passed Uncut Gems to become the highest grosser in A24's history, and seems likely to top out above $60 million.
Firestarter fell dramatically in its second weekend, losing nearly half of its opening weekend business. The ill-fated remake took in $2 million for a ten-day total of $7.1 million and still seems destined to finish below $10 million.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore still has an outside shot of hitting $100 million, as it took in $2 million to raise its total to $93.1 million. A film that looked like it would fall short, but now will likely cross the line by the end of the upcoming weekend, is The Lost City, which earned $1.6 million to bring its total to $99.3 million. Rounding out the Top 10, The Northman made $1.1 million to bring its total to $33.1 million.
Two new movies hit multiplexes in time for Memorial Day. After spending the last two years bouncing all over the schedule, Top Gun: Maverick, in which Tom Cruise returns to the role that made him a superstar 36 years later, finally hits theaters. Unlike most films that go through a lot of release dates, this is getting near-unanimous raves and is expected to have a huge opening, perhaps as high as $100 million (if it does open that big, it will be the first non-comic book movie to hit that opening weekend total since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker), and is virtually guaranteed to open at #1. Likely opening well behind is The Bob's Burgers Movie, a theatrical spin-off of the long-running animated cult hit TV sitcom. To be honest, it's rather amazing that the film is opening in theaters and not on a streaming platform. It is likely going to finish below both Top Gun and Doctor Strange, competing with Downton Abbey for third. Will Top Gun take our breath away with its opening? Or is this on the highway to the danger zone in terms of box office? We'll find out next week.
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