by Nathaniel R
Once again Jordan Peele proves he's one of the rare celebrities who is bankable behind the camera. His third film as a director brings him a third #1 finish, as Nope nabs the biggest original film opening weekend since... Peele's own previous hit Us (2019) opened to $71 million. Any win for original filmmaking feels so good, doesn't it? More after the jump...
| Weekend Box Office (Estimates) July 22nd-24th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it |
|
| WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS) | PLATFORM RELEASES |
 NOPE |
 FIRE OF LOVE |
| 1 ★🔺 NOPE $44.3 *NEW* |
1 🔺 MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON $874k (cum. $2.9) |
| 2 THOR: LOVE & THUNDER $22.5 (cum. $276.6) |
2 ★🔺 FIRE OF LOVE [DOC] $133k (cum. $283k) |
| 3 MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU $18 (cum. $298.1) |
3 ★ EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE $94k (cum. $68.1) |
| 4 WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING $10.3 (cum. $38.3) |
4 🔺 HALLELUJAH LEONARD COHEN... [DOC] $64k (cum. $226k) |
| 5 ★ TOP GUN MAVERICK $10.2 (cum. $635.8) | 5 🔺 MY DONKEY, MY LOVER, AND I (France) $30k *NEW* |
|
6★ ELVIS $6.5 (cum. $118.6) |
6 FIRE (France) $15k (cum. $108k) |
| 7 PAWS OF FURY $3.8 (cum. $13.7) |
7 ★ MAD GOD $13k (cum. $261k) |
| 8 THE BLACKPHONE $3.5 (cum. $78.6) |
8 THE KILLER (South Korea) $130k (cum. $123k) |
| 9 JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION $3.1 (cum. $365.6) | 9 ★ OFFICIAL COMPETITION (Spain) $11k (cum. $558k) |
| 10 ★ MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS $1.4 (cum. $4.7) | 10 ★ GABBY GIFFORDS WON'T BACK DOWN [Doc] $11k (cum. $134k) |
| 11 LIGHTYEAR $713k (cum. $117.1) | 11 PHANTOM OF THE OPEN (UK) $7k (cum. $705k) |
WIDE RELEASE NOTES
Speaking of 2019... For the first time that we know of we have the same amount of movies in wide release as we did in pre-pandemic times with 11 films easy to access for the general public and the same number in the equivalent weekend three years back. Of course in 2019 the wide releases combined gross around $254 million and this weekend around $122 so moviegoing still isn't quite what it used to be. That said the numbers for 2019 were skewed by the debut of the all CG The Lion King which was in more theaters than anything is now (and with no Disney+ free at home option looming just one month and change away). It earned more that weekend than all of 2022's wide releases combined this past weekend. People's tolerance for watching Disney regurgitating their own stuff will always be alarming though perhaps that was the peak of it since that version of The Lion King made $1.6 billion globally despite being criticized as a nearly shot-for-shot remake of the 2D animated classic without any of the profits going back to the original artists who created the template for all the visuals. How Disney+ will ever be able to earn as much as Disney did on the regular with most of their big ticket releases crossing the 1 billion mark in theaters before ancilliary markets we'll never know but Disney put all but their Marvel eggs in that basket now with those tight windows for theatrical.
As for the current releases...
Minions The Rise of Gru is almost at $300 which is really something when you consider that none of the other animated releases this year got anywhere close to that. Number two is Lightyear at just $117 (and a flop by Pixar standards)
Top Gun Maverick has crossed the billion dollar globally, only the second film after the COVID-19 pandemic hit to do that, the other being Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). It is also still demonstrating crazy-good legs dropping only 18% in its 9th weekend. Both films were conceived, marinated, and received in heavy nostalgia mode so expect more of that from blockbusters (not that they aren't already leaning heavily in that diretion).
BIG QUESTION: which non-franchise blockbuster from the 80s or 90s will suddenly get an unexpected 30 years later sequel greenlit in Maverick's wake? Hollywood loves to chase a monster success with something similar.
LIMITED RELEASE NOTES
My Old School, reviewed at Sundance also opened this weekend, albeit at just one theater. It's an experimental docabout a boy who was not what he seemed in a Scottish boarding school. Alan Cumming lipsynchs to the voice of the film's subject Brandon Lee, retelling his story.
Slow and steady has won the race for Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. It's been steadily expanding every week and holding its audience. It basically tripled its screen count this weekend and is now at almost 600 screens and nearing a $3 million haul. How much of an audience is there for it out there? We shall see.
NEXT WEEKEND
The new animated feature DC League of Super Pets opens and hopes to kick Nope out of the top spot. Other new titles next week include BJ Novak's thriller Vengeance (reviewed at Tribeca), an Oscar qualifying run for the Ron Howard cave rescue drama true story Thirteen Lives (before a quick jump to Amazon Prime), and three buzzy festival titles hit regular theaters: Lena Dunham's Sharp Stick (reviewed), the Dale Dicky/Wes Studi romantic drama A Love Song (reviewed), and another Rebecca Hall tour-de-force in the creepy psychological horror flick Resurrection (reviewed).
What did you see these past few days?
A big 'here we are now, entertain us!' weekend. We took in Nope of course (and loved it), caught both The Sea Beast and Persuasion on Netflix, as well as the werewolf film The Cursed which is new to Hulu. Finally we attended a free concert in Brooklyn (pictured left): John Cameron Mitchell and Amber Martin's "Cassette Roulette" which was... incredible. They sang three songs from Hedwig and the Angry Inch among other classics of pop, rock, country, and showtunes. More on that later if you're interested.