Box Office: “No” flies away while “Marcel” takes its time – Blog
by Nathaniel R.
Once again Jordan Peele proves he is one of the few bankable celebrities behind the camera. His third film as a director earned him a third #1, while Nope Wins Biggest Original Movie Opening Weekend Since… Peele’s Previous Hit We (2019) opened at $71 million. Any win for original cinema feels so good, doesn’t it? More after the jump…
| Weekend box office (estimates) July 22-24 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended links if we wrote about it |
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| LARGE (OVER 800 SCREENS) | PLATFORM RELEASES |
| NOPE |  FIRE OF LOVE |
| 1 ★🔺 NOPE $44.3 *NEW* | 1 🔺 MARCEL LA COQUILLE WITH SHOES $874,000 (cumulative $2.9) |
| 2 THOR: LOVE AND MOW $22.5 (cum. $276.6) | 2 ★🔺 FIRE OF LOVE [DOC] $133,000 (cumulative $283,000) |
| 3 MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU $18 (cum. $298.1) | 3 ★ EVERYWHERE AT THE SAME TIME $94,000 (cumulative $68.1) |
| 4 WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING $10.3 (cum. $38.3) | 4 🔺 HALLELUJAH LEONARD COHEN… [DOC] $64,000 (cumulative $226,000) |
| 5 ★ TOP GUN MAVERICK $10.2 (cumulative $635.8) | 5 🔺 MY DONKEY, MY LOVER AND ME (France) $30,000 *NEW* |
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6★ ELVIS $6.5 (cum. $118.6) |
6 FIRE (France) $15,000 (cumulative $108,000) |
| seven PAWS OF FURY $3.8 (cumulative $13.7) | seven ★ CRAZY GOD $13,000 (cumulative $261,000) |
| 8 THE BLACKPHONE $3.5 (cum. $78.6) | 8 THE KILLER (South Korea) $130,000 (cumulative $123,000) |
| 9 JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION $3.1 (cumulative $365.6) | 9 ★ OFFICIAL COMPETITION (Spain) $11,000 (cumulative $558,000) |
| 10 ★ MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS $1.4 (cumulative $4.7) | ten ★ Gabby GIFfords won’t back down [Doc] $11,000 (cumulative $134,000) |
| 11 LIGHT YEAR $713,000 (cumulative $117.1) | 11 PHANTOM OF THE OPEN (UK) $7,000 (cumulative $705,000) |
LARGE RELEASE NOTES
Speaking of 2019… For the first time we know we have the same number of mainstream movies as we did pre-pandemic with 11 easy-to-access movies for the general public and the same equivalent weekend number three years ago. Of course, in 2019, large-scale releases combined around $254 million and this weekend around $122, so cinema still isn’t quite what it used to be. That said, the numbers for 2019 were skewed by the debut of the whole CG thing. The Lion King which was in more theaters than anything now (and with no Disney+ free at home option looming just a month and a change). He earned more this weekend than all of the 2022 wide releases combined last weekend. People’s tolerance for watching Disney regurgitate their own stuff will always be alarming, though it may have been the peak since this version of The Lion King made $1.6 billion worldwide despite critical acclaim as an almost shot-for-shot remake of the 2D animated classic with none of the profits going to the original artists who created the model for all the visuals. How Disney+ will ever earn as much as Disney has consistently done with most of their big ticket releases crossing the billion mark in theaters before ancillary markets, we’ll never know, but Disney has it all. put but their Marvel eggs in this basket now with these narrow theatrical windows.
As for current versions…
Minions The Rise of Gru is almost $300, which is really quite something considering none of the other anime releases this year have come close to. number two is Light year at just $117 (and a flop by Pixar standards)
Top Gun Maverick crossed $1 billion worldwide, only the second film after the COVID-19 pandemic hit to do so, the other being Spider-Man: No Coming Home (2021). He also still demonstrates crazy legs, losing just 18% in his 9th weekend. Both movies were conceived, marinated, and received in heavy nostalgia mode, so expect more blockbusters (not that they’re not leaning heavily in that direction already).
BIG QUESTION: Which non-franchise blockbuster from the 80s or 90s will suddenly get an unexpected sequel 30 years later maverickis awake? Hollywood likes to chase monster success with something similar.
LIMITED RELEASE NOTES
My old school, reviewed at Sundance also opened its doors this weekend, but in only one theater. It’s an experimental documentary about a boy who was not what he seemed to be at a Scottish boarding school. Alan Cumming lip-syncs to the voice of film subject Brandon Lee, telling his story.
Slow and steady won the race for Marcel the shod shell. It has continued to grow each week and maintain its audience. It nearly tripled its screen count over the weekend and now has nearly 600 screens and is approaching $3 million. How many audience are there? We will see.
NEXT WEEKEND
The new animated feature DC League of Super Pets opens and hope to kick Nope out of first place. Other new titles next week include BJ Novak’s thriller Revenge (reviewed in Tribeca), an Oscar qualifying run for the true story of Ron Howard’s cave rescue drama Thirteen Lives (before a quick jump to Amazon Prime), and three hot festival titles hit theaters regularly: S by Lena Dunhamharp stick (revised), the romantic drama Dale Dicky/Wes Studi A love song (review) and another Rebecca Hall tour de force in the chilling psychological horror movie Resurrection (revised).
What is you see the last few days?
A big “we’re there now, have fun!” weekend. We took in Nope of course (and I loved it), took both The beast from the sea and Persuasion on Netflix, as well as the werewolf movie Cursed who is new to Hulu. Finally, we attended a free concert in Brooklyn (photo on the left): “Cassette Roulette” by John Cameron Mitchell and Amber Martin what was… unbelievable. They sang three songs from Hedwig and the Angry Inch among other pop, rock, country and showtune classics. More on that later if you’re interested.
