This article is late in getting out because this weekend’s box office contest was down to the wire. Going into the weekend, it looked as though Top Gun: Maverick was going to reclaim the #1 spot, as Jurassic World: Dominion cooled down. It was also predicted that Lightyear would land at #3. Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis was eyed to come in at #4 with another newcomer The Black Phone rounding out the Top Five.
However, Elvis defied all expectations. Up until this morning, it looked as though there were going to be two number ones, this and Top Gun. But now that all the numbers have been crunched, The King has come out on top. This is despite the fact that in some places, tickets to Elvis cost less than those to Top Gun. It’s also worth noting that Elvis is long as hell. It’s about two hours and forty minutes long, so it can’t actually be shown as many times as Maverick or any other shorter films.
Elvis shook up $31.1M compared to Maverick‘s $29.6M. However, over three days, technically Maverick did better, but Elvis has the added income from Thursday previews, and… those are just the rules.
Both movies are older-skewing and that’s significant. The older audience, particularly females, have been the slowest to return to the multiplexes post-COVID-19. Elvis‘s audience was 58% female and 28% over the age of 55. The appeal of The King, embodied in the movie by Austin Butler, was just the thrust needed to draw that demographic back.
Elvis has a 78% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a 94% audience rating. Austin Butler is already getting Oscar buzz (which I 100% agree with– he’s INCREDIBLE).
Maverick still has a reason to sing. It has now soared passed the $1 billion mark worldwide — a feat that has only been accomplished by one other movie during the pandemic era — Spider-Man: No Way Home. This was already Tom Cruise’s top-grosser after just two weeks (which is mindblowing). It’s producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s largest domestic picture, but it still has a tiny bit of work to do before it dethrones Pirates of the Caribbean: Stranger Tides, which made $1.05B. It can do it.
Lightyear is deflating fast. It’s kind of a mystery why this is just not connecting. It plummeted to #5, below this week’s other new movie, The Black Phone.
Check out the Top Five below:
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- Elvis (Warner Bros.) 3-day $31.1M/Wk 1
- Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount) 3-day $29.6M, Total $521.7M/Wk 5
- Jurassic World Dominion (Universal) 3-day $26.44M, Total $302.77M/Wk 3
- The Black Phone (Universal) 3-day $23.3M/Wk 1
- Lightyear (Disney) 3-day $17.66M, Total $88.7M/Wk 2
Next week sees the release of Minions: The Rise of Gru. This is great news because now I can stop seeing the trailer before every movie I go to. This picture was originally supposed to be released two years ago but… COVID. So, here it comes!
The real question here is, will this open better than Lightyear? Could it dethrone Elvis?
Check back to find out!
