Thor: Love and Thunder suffers a typical MCU drop, while "Where the Crawdads Sing" had a solid opening.
One of the more remarkable movie stats of the past couple of years is the second weekend drops of MCU titles. Thanks to strong word-of-mouth and limited competition, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings declined about 54%. The other four titles all dropped more than 60%, with Eternals dropping 64% and Black Widow, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness all dropping between 67% and 67.8%. Apparently, that's the new MCU drop number, as Thor: Love and Thunder dropped 67.7% in its second weekend.
The latest MCU entry was still able to win the weekend quite handily, however, as it earned $46.6 million, for a ten-day total of $233.9 million, making it the year's sixth title to pass the $200 million mark. That's enough to exceed the entire runs of the first two Thor movies, and it's still running well ahead of where Thor: Ragnarok was in its second weekend. It should finish higher than that film's $315.1 million, though how much higher is an open question.
Minions: The Rise of Gru continues to dominate the kids market, taking in $26.8 million to bring its total to $263.4 million. This is almost exactly where the first Minions was after three weeks in 2015. That said, Minions'15 had no animated competition, while Gru has to face DC League of Superpets in two weeks. We'll see if that will keep Gru short of Minions'15's $336 million final.
Opening in third is Where the Crawdads Sing, only the third non-franchise cog real success story of the summer. The adaption of Delia Owens's best-seller, which stars Daisy Edgar-Jones in her first lead role in a major Hollywood production, exceeded expectations, taking in $17.3 million. $50 million minimum is almost guaranteed, and with good word of mouth, it could make it to $60 or even $70 million.
After 7 weeks in the Top 3, Top Gun: Maverick finally falls to 4th, earning another $12.3 million to bring its year-leading total to $618.2 million. It should pass Star Wars: The Last Jedi in the coming days to hit 10th on the all-time domestic gross list. While it has proven in the past to be a very bad idea to sell this movie short, it now seems likely Maverick will be coming in for a landing short of $700 million. Still, this has been a sensational run for a film that, coming into the summer, was pegged as to be lucky if it hit $250 million.
Crossing the century mark is Elvis, which grossed $8 million for a total gross of $106.6 million. This is the first adult drama to hit that mark since Ford vs. Ferrari during the 2019 holidays. This looks to be heading to a final gross of between $120 and $130 million, and then awards consideration (assuming the film is placed in the Comedy/Musical category, Austin Butler should be a lock for a Golden Globe nomination).
Despite the success of Minions, animation as a genre is still struggling, as evidenced by the awful opening of Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank. The kid-friendly Blazing Saddles remake(!) could only pull in $6.3 million to open in 6th. With the title likely to be down to matinees only by next Friday, this one could end up grossing less than $15 million, or roughly 1/7th of what Saddles grossed in 1974, not adjusted for inflation.
The Black Phone, the third non-franchise success story, took in another $5.4 million to bring its total to $72.1 million. It should pass Scream in the next couple of weeks to become both the year's biggest horror movie and year's biggest R-rated movie--assuming another movie doesn't get there first. Jurassic World: Dominion continues to fade, as it brought in $5.2 million for a total of $359.9 million.
Focus hoped that adult audiences would turn out for the gentle, 50s-set comedy Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. Alas, the Downton Abbey crowd stayed home (or went to see Where the Crawdads Sing), as it could only muster up $2 million. In the past, I'd assume good word-of-mouth and subject matter that lent itself well to a long, leggy run would still allow the film to become a minor hit. That's still very possible, but it seems more likely that Mrs. Harris will struggle to get past the $5 million mark.
Rounding out the Top 10 is the summer's biggest flop, Lightyear, which brought in $1.4 million for a total of $115.6 million. At this point, it seems highly unlikely that it will be able to pass The Good Dinosaur, which would make it the lowest-grossing non-asterisk Pixar film. However, this weekend does deserve mention as the first one since June 3 to see all ten films in the Top 10 gross at least $1 million.
Only one new film opens wide this weekend, but it's one of the two films (along with August's Bullet Train) that will certainly be competing for the title of the summer's biggest non-franchise cog. Plot details on Nope have been kept tightly under wraps, but we do know it stars Keke Palmer and Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya as siblings whose rural California horse ranch comes under attack from aliens. Reviews beginning to filter out for Jordan Peele's latest have been largely positive, which should help contribute to a solid opening at #1. Will Nope be able to top the $70 million opening of Peele's Us? We'll find out next week.
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