Thor: Love and Thunder has perhaps the last $100 million+ opening until the holidays.
[Sorry for this being 72 hours late. I've been having a looooooooooong week]
This has been an incredible summer for tentpoles. This summer has seen six megatitles released, and five of them opened above $100 million and will be finishing north of $300 million domestic. The latest--and probably last--film to join that club is Thor: Love and Thunder, the fourth film starring the titular god and the 30th film of the overall MCU. At $144.2 million, this is the top opening for a Thor movie, and the third-best opening of the year, behind stablemate Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Jurassic World: Dominion. While there is some potent competition during the second half of the summer, its unlikely to be anything approaching the early summer mega-tentpoles, which might give Thor some room for decent legs. At the very least, a gross north of $350 million should be on the table.
After last weekend's huge opening, Minions: The Rise of Gru fell back to Earth, posting a second-weekend gross of $46.1 million. That brings its ten-day haul to $210.7 million, which is just a bit off what the first Minions made in its first ten days. Gru is now the highest-grossing animated title of the pandemic, a title it is likely to keep until at least Strange World arrives for Thanksgiving. It also seems likely to be heading to a final gross near what the first Minions did in 2015.
In its seventh week in the top 3, Top Gun: Maverick continues to cement its status as the biggest film of the summer, and possibly of the year. It grossed $15.5 million, to fly its total to $597.4 million. After $600 million, it's an open question if there's enough in the tank to make it to $700 million, though given the steady grosses the film has maintained all summer, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if it does make it, especially with its streaming release likely still two months away.
Elvis may not be the megablockbuster that other summer titles have proven to be, but its holding its own, taking in $11.2 million to bring its total to $91.3 million. It should be above $100 million by the end of next weekend.
Jurassic World: Dominion was able to take in another $8.6 million, to bring its total to $350.5 million. Horror hit The Black Phone brought in $7.8 million, for a total of $62.4 million. The summer's biggest flop, Lightyear, earned $3.1 million for a gross of $112.5 million.
The remaining three films in the Top 10 didn't come close to $1 million for the weekend. Surprisingly jumping to #8 is quirky live action/animated dramedy Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, despite only playing at 48 theaters. It has a total gross of just under $1 million. A film that probably should have stuck to 48 theaters, instead of trying to go wide, was last week's flop Mr. Malcolm's List. It has a ten-day total of $1.7 million. Rounding out the Top 10 is the summer's first mega-blockbuster, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which now stands at $411.1 million.
Three new films go wide this weekend, none of which are likely to challenge Thor for the top slot. Hoping for a Top Three opening is Where the Crawdads Sing, an adaption of the best-seller about a backwoods girl accused of murder. This got some possibly unwanted publicity this week when it emerged that the author of the novel is wanted for questioning in a murder herself. To be honest, that probably won't affect the grosses much. Also opening is the animated Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, about a dog in feudal Japan that tries to protect a town of cats from some evil samurai. Weirdly, this is an official remake of Blazing Saddles, complete with Mel Brooks providing a voice. Finally, the comedy Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, about a cleaning woman in 1950s London (Lesley Manville) whose dream trip to Paris becomes the adventure of a lifetime, hopes to attract the Downton Abbey crowd. Could Crawdads make a surprise run to the top? Can Thor avoid dropping by more than 60%? We'll find out next week.
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