The summer movie season is over, folks. Bullet Train was the last big release for some time, which means we’ve officially entered the dry month of August, where the particular most notable launch on the menu is Steven Spielberg’s E. T. – The Extra-Terrestrial (and that’s not a bad thing). Before we jump into the fall movie season, I thought it’d be fun to look back at the box office performances from the dearth of summer flicks released from May to July.
Surprisingly, there were quite a few successes to counter a few disappointing bombs. Of note, only Top Gun: Maverick crossed the billion-dollar mark. A few others got close, but couldn’t leap over the bar (mostly due to China’s lack of involvement). So, while we’re mostly back again to normalcy in terms of theater-going, we’re still a far cry from your glory days of distant 2019 when the particular box office was loaded with billion-dollar-plus earners.
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Summer Box Office Winners
Top Gun: Maverick
Domestic: $663M
International: $690M
Worldwide: $1. 353B
Prior to Top Weapon released, I predicted it would gross roughly $800M worldwide and play out like a Mission: Impossible film. My assessment stemmed mostly from what appeared to be a lack of enthusiasm for the long-awaited sequel from people that We knew and/or talked in order to. I has been overwhelmingly excited for the pic, but no one else came close to matching my enthusiasm.
Boy, was I actually wrong.
Top Gun exploded out of the gates with a massive $125M, but then a funny thing happened: it kept/keeps making money. Why? Because it’s a really good movie. The type of quality entertainment not typically found in the modern cineplex, one boasting heroes, incredibly staged action (that’s not reliant on CGI), and an overall positive vibe about family, country plus teamwork. To date, Maverick sits at No . 7 around the All-Time Domestic list and will likely pass Avengers: Infinity War and maybe even Black Panther before all is said and done. That’s absolutely incredible, and a rare instance of a modern film enjoying strong legs at the package office.
Worldwide, Maverick has no chance associated with cracking the particular Top 10, but keep in mind it never received the China discharge where Tom Cruise vehicles usually perform well. Seriously, with the Chinese total, it’s possible Maverick would be gunning for The Lion King ($1. 663B in 2019) and Jurassic World ($1. 671B in 2015).
Jurassic World: Dominion
Household: $372M
International: $589M
Globally: $961M
I expected Dominion to go gangbusters in the box office because A) dinosaurs B) the returning OG cast (a tactic that worked incredibly well for Spider-Man ) and C) the threequel was (kind of) advertised as the conclusion of the Jurassic World saga. The problem is that reviews with regard to Colin Trevorrow’s monster bash were abysmal and cut into what should have been a massive opening weekend (though $145M is nothing to balk at) and word of mouth was generally poor.
Still, as was the case with Doctor Strange , Jurassic World somehow managed to leg it out to nearly the billion globally. I don’t care exactly what franchise you are, a billion dollars is nevertheless a billion dollars. So, while Mastery fell far short of its predecessors ( Jurassic World scored $1. 669B in 2015, Fallen Kingdom earned $1. 308B within 2018), I’m sure Universal is perfectly content with the overall performance.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Domestic: $411M
Worldwide: $543M
Worldwide: $954M
Physician Strange wasn’t the biggest Marvel hit in the box office but still managed in order to gross the staggering $954M worldwide (sans China), which places the particular Sam Raimi pic firmly between Spider-Man: Homecoming ($878M) and Captain Marvel ($1. 129B). One could chalk up audience excitement as fallout from the very popular Spider-Man: No Way Home , yet considering its lack of true star power and A-list superheroes, the particular near billion-dollar gross regarding Strange has got to count as a huge win intended for Marvel and the Mouse House and proves the superhero brand is still very much alive.
Minions: The Rise associated with Gru
Domestic: $335M
International: $424M
Worldwide: $759M
In a year that saw a Buzz Lightyear solo movie through Pixar and a superhero movie featuring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, it is crazy that the No. 1 animated film was Illumination’s Minions: The particular Rise of Gru . I shouldn’t be surprised. The original Minions grossed a staggering $1. 157B from the worldwide box workplace in 2015 (placing it at Number 4 within the All-Time Animated Films list), but I deeply underestimated the value of these goofy animated flicks.
Surprisingly, Gru is set to overtake the original’s $336M domestic haul but is about $400M away from matching its global take. Not opening in China plus Japan doesn’t help, but this will be still a massive win for the studio.
Thor: Love and Thunder
Household: $317M
Global: $382M
Worldwide: $699M
In a similar vein in order to Doctor Unusual , Thor performed reasonably well despite ho-hum reviews and lukewarm fan reaction. The God of Oklahoma city wound up with near identical domestic numbers to Ragnarok ($315M) and only comes up short on the global container office because — say it with me: Taika Waititi’s film was not released within China. Ragnarok scored $112M in the particular Middle Empire back in 2017, plus while that number still does not get Love and Thunder past the predecessor, it’s close enough to call it a wash.
Still, several may chalk this up as a loss for Wonder considering the star energy and anticipation for Thor 3 . We hadn’t seen the particular character since Endgame as well as the trailers leaned hard on A) the Guardians of the Galaxy and B) Jane’s transformation into a brand-new Thor. One would imagine such inclusions might merit higher results.
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Elvis
Domestic: $137M
International: $114M
Globally: $251M
The Dark Phone
Domestic: $86M
International: $62M
Worldwide: $148M
Where the particular Crawdads Sing
Domestic: $65M
International: $12M
Worldwide: $78M
Tucked in-between the big releases were smaller films that will achieved their own victories. The Black Phone carried the particular torch to get horror films while Elvis and Crawdads drew in older audiences. None associated with these numbers are particularly eye popping, yet in the wake of a massive pandemic, it’s nice to see relatively smaller sized fare achieve success.
Elvis , in particular, cost a cool $85M to produce plus swung its way in order to $251M globally, placing this just under Encanto in terms of film musicals.
Crawdads shocked plenty along with a strong $17M starting weekend and continues to impress with a cumulative $78M total. That number may not leap in order to you, but against a $25M budget, the particular makers behind the production aren’t complaining.
Summer time Box Workplace Losers
Nope
Household: $107M
World: $6M
Worldwide: $113M
The particular jury is usually still out on Jordan Peele’s sci-fi thriller, the criminally underrated Nope , as it just launched in several territories internationally. While it recently crossed the $100M tag at the particular domestic box office, compared to Get Out and Us , which usually earned $175M apiece domestically in 2017 and 2019, Nope’s failure to catch fire is a bit worrisome pertaining to Peele’s brand. This is definitely why Hollywood runs away from original properties.
Downton Abbey: A New Era
Domestic: $43M
International: $47M
Worldwide: $91M
This might seem a little harsh considering A New Era ended up grossing $91M worldwide, but the sequel in order to 2019’s Downton Abbey feature took inside $100M less than the predecessor … which can be probably not what the producers expected. Or maybe they did. Who knows.
Now, an argument could be made that this original hit pay dirt mainly due to the fact it was the particular first bit of Downton fans had received since the show finished in 2016. The hype led to the particular feature overperforming at the package office plus achieving the lightning-in-a-bottle type of success, while A brand new Era performed in the manner befitting of its kind of movie.
Or maybe interest in Downton has waned in recent years. Considering it only cost $40M to produce, the $91M continues to be a win, but that’s still a huge drop off from one film to the next.
Pixar’s Lightyear
Domestic: $118M
International: $99M
Worldwide: $217M
DC League of Super-Pets
Domestic: $46M
International: $38M
Globally: $84M
The Bob’s Burgers Movie
Domestic: $31M
International: $2M
Worldwide: $34M
Paws of Fury: The particular Legend associated with Hank
Domestic: $17M
International: $746
Worldwide: $18M
Cartoon comedies not really named Minions had a rough go in the container office this year. Bob’s Burgers couldn’t even recoup its modest $38M budget, while Pixar’s Lightyear crashed and burned for a myriad of reasons (the same-sex kiss controversy, a complete lack of desire for this particular iteration associated with Buzz and/or a desire to wait and watch the flick on Disney+), Paws of Fury had been DOA and DC League of Super-Pets has so far failed to generate much hype in spite of its star-studded cast plus superhero premise.
All associated with these movies showed promise but were lost in Minions ‘ massive shadow. Still, you’d think even the poorly reviewed Lightyear would certainly manage decent numbers upon par along with Cars 3 . Buzz couldn’t even leap more than The Good Dinosaur , and barely cleared Onward locally. So much meant for that live-action Woody movie.
Firestarter
Household: $9M
Essential: $5M
Worldwide: $14M
Just a few odd years ago we were all talking about the particular “Stephen King renaissance” thanks to the box office success of IT , the handful associated with Netflix features, and that short-lived (and bizarre) J. J. Abrams show. I anticipated remakes of Cujo , Salem’s Lot , plus The Stand … and instead, we got Firestarter . A remake associated with an 80s film no one remembers.
As it turns out, audiences weren’t keen to venture from their homes to check out the particular thriller for the big screen, resulting in a putrid $14M box office.