Thanks to cheap tickets, Labor Day weekend got a lot of attendance, even if individual movies didn't earn a lot of money.
As noted before, Labor Day tends to be the one major holiday that Hollywood tends to ignore, at least until the last couple of years, which saw such mega-releases as Tenet and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings land on the long weekend. This year reverts to the previous status quo, which provided movie theaters with an opportunity to experiment with ultra-low ticket prices, dropping seats to just $3 on Saturday. The results were encouraging, as theaters from coast to coast put up huge attendance numbers, with several movies even showing an increase in grosses from the weekend before. Undoubtedly, theaters made a very nice profit from all those moviegoers buying lots of concessions, which weren't discounted. Of course, when you drop ticket prices to 1986-syle levels, you're going to get 1986-style grosses, even with huge attendance figures.
Speaking of 1986, Top Gun: Maverick replicated a feat that its predecessor did that year, namely win a weekend in September despite having opened back in May. The year's biggest blockbuster flew back up to the top spot from #4, taking in $6 million over the Friday-Sunday portion of the weekend and bringing its gross to $699.3 million. Labor Day saw it pass $700 million and Black Panther, to become the #5 film of all time. This is likely to be the last major milestone for the film, as #4 Avatar is $60 million away, and will likely be adding to its gross later this month when it returns to theaters ahead of its sequel's release in December. That said, it was just a few weeks ago that I was skeptical of Maverick hitting $700 million, so with this film, never say never.
Staying steady at #2, Bullet Train also saw an increase in gross, as it took in $5.8 million. That brings its total to $86.3 million as it is on track to hit $100 million before the end of the month. Sony was obviously hoping for more when they greenlit it, but it should be profitable in the long term.
Swinging back into theaters at #3 (for the weekend), #3 (for all time) Spider-Man: No Way Home returned with 15 extra minutes of footage, a new subtitle (The More Fun Stuff Version), and an additional $5.4 million and counting, which brings its all-time gross to $810.2 million. The re-release is highly unlikely to help it make up the ground between it and #2 Avengers: Endgame, but should provide some extra bills for Sony executives' money fights, as well as ensuring that die-hard fans who already own the movie on digital and/or Blu-Ray and/or DVD will go out and buy it again when the extra footage becomes available for home viewing.
In 4th, DC League of Super-Pets was able to also bring up its grosses from the previous weekend, taking in $5 million. Its gross is now up to $80.4 million and still could hit $100 million, though with nearly every kid now back in school, it will have to rely on weekend grosses to put it over the top.
Last week's champ, The Invitation, had a very good hold for a poorly-received horror film, dropping only 28% to $4.9 million. However, that was still only good for fifth, as the film now has a ten-day total of $13.9 million, and still looks like it's heading to a $20 million final.
Beast also lost business from last week, falling to $4 million with a total gross of $25.8 million. Long runners Minions: The Rise of Gru and Thor: Love and Thunder both saw bumps from last weekend, making $3.5 million and $2.7 million, respectively. Their totals now stand at $359.3 million and $340.2 million. Minions is less than $10 million behind Despicable Me 2 and looks to take over as the franchise's top grossing film by the end of the month.
With the all-time current #5 and the all-time current #3 on the charts, it is fitting that a former all-time #1 returned to theaters at #9. Jaws, the original summer blockbuster, returned to IMAX theaters with $2.6 million. That pushes it past The Amazing-Spider Man and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to #121 all time.
Rounding out the Top 10, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is now down to only about 10% of its opening gross just two weeks ago, as it brought in $2.4 million for a gross of $34.6 million. It will be one of a handful of wide-release films that will be unable to even double its opening weekend gross. That's enough, however, to move past Jujutsu Kaisen 0 from earlier this year to become the #2 non-Pokemon anime all-time in North America.
Outside the Top 10, Three Thousand Years of Longing managed to do even worse than last week, taking in $1.7 million for a ten-day total of $5.9 million. That's still better than the two new wide releases were able to pull off. Religious satire Honk for Jesus Save Your Soul was only able to collect $1.4 million in its baskets, while quadriplegic boy-and-his-monkey drama Gigi & Nate (not to be confused with another recent flop, Mack & Rita) could only pull in just under $1 million.
This week's biggest release is Pinocchio, Robert Zemeckis's (sort of) live-action remake of Disney's beloved 1940 masterpiece, and one of two big-budgeted Pinocchio movies coming this fall. Reviews are awful, but with Tom Hanks as Geppetto, and audience's bizarre love for seeing live-action/CGI hybrids of classic Disney animation, this should be a huge opening. Alas, Disney being Disney, this is going straight to Disney+, costing theaters a badly needed blockbuster. The good news is that the film that is opening wide this weekend, the horror-thriller Barbarian, is getting fantastic reviews, and will probably be an easy #1, though it will still make only a fraction of what Pinocchio would have brought in. Also opening semi-wide, and hoping for spots on the lower half of the top 10 are Christian drama Lifemark, period action film Medieval, and Bollywood spectacles Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva and Oke Oka Jeevitham. Can Barbarian open above $10 million? Will its reviews propel it to an opening above $20 million? We'll find out next week.
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