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Tom Cruise is once again king at the domestic box office.
Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick, co-financed and co-produced by Skydance, stormed to the top of the charts in its second weekend of release, grossing a staggering $25 million at 4,751 locations on Friday. After “Maverick” enjoyed its widest domestic opening last weekend with 4,732 North American theaters added 19 more for his second outing.
The studio is forecasting revenue of $84.5 million through Sunday, a stunning 33% drop from its three-day opening of $124 million. A gentle decline like this would be a superlative achievement, marking the smallest decline in domestic box office history for a film that opened over $100 million. For comparison, recent high-gross titles like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and The Batman dropped 67% and 50%, respectively, on their second appearances.
Even for a star like Cruise, a decline of just 33% in recent years is largely unknown. The actor’s latest blockbuster, 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout fell 42.5% to $61.2 million in its second weekend after its premiere.
All of this is to say that “Maverick” does very well. Word of mouth for the sequel was spectacular, with the film earning a rare “A+” on Cinema Score, indicating maximum approval from general ticket buyers.
Paramount expects “Maverick” to increase its domestic gross to $290 million by Sunday. It is already Cruise’s biggest film of all time at the domestic box office, surpassing his previous best of 2005’s $243.3 million “War of the Worlds” on Saturday.
Reunited with his Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski, Cruise returns to Top Gun as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, who must train a new fleet of aircraft for a challenging mission. In addition to Cruise, the sequel stars Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connelly and Val Kilmer.
Top Gun: Maverick will soon have competition in the form of fellow blockbuster Jurassic World: Dominion when it premieres in North America on June 10th. Universal started the overseas release of “Dominion” this week, debuting a strong $16.7 million on Thursday with an expected weekend gross of over $50 million.
Directed by Colin Trevorrow, who directed the first Jurassic World in 2015, Dominion brings together stars from past and present Jurassic films including Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and the Newcomers DeWanda Wise and Mamoudou Athie.
Disney’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was set to go silver on the domestic charts. The Marvel sequel added $2.6 million on Friday and its domestic gross is expected to rise to $388.6 million by Sunday. That puts it on track to make the $389 million haul of 2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Disney’s ninth-highest grossing at Marvel Studios.
Disney and 20th Century Studios’ The Bob’s Burgers Movie is predicted for third place. After grossing $1.3 million on Friday, the adaptation of the hit Fox animated series is expected to bring in $4.4 million over its second weekend. That’s a whopping 64% drop since it opened, suggesting that many fans of the series were likely ready for the film once it hit theaters.
Universal’s The Bad Guys will take fourth place, with a projected 24% drop in its seventh weekend. After a somewhat underwhelming opening, DreamWorks Animation production has seen a series of soft drops, capitalizing on the lack of kid-friendly food on the market. “The Bad Guys” is expected to take its domestic gross to $87 million by Sunday.
Focus Features’ Downton Abbey: A New Era is set to round out the top five on the domestic charts. The costume drama sequel was expected to gross $3 million this weekend, taking domestic gross profits to $35.7 million.
Kamal Haasan’s “Vikram” vehicle also got off to a solid start on its US release, raising around $870,000 from 460 locations on Friday. The Indian thriller was expected to gross approximately $2.2 million over three days.
Neon’s “Crimes of the Future” is looking weak, targeting a 10th spot after earning $490,000 from 773 locations on Friday. The film, directed by David Cronenberg, premiered just a few weeks ago at the Cannes Film Festival. While many appreciated the filmmaker’s return to the realm of body horror, the consensus seemed to agree that his latest film isn’t exactly the most commercial.
Finally, Columbia Pictures added 954 locations for Morbius, the latest entry in the studio’s own-label Marvel character universe, and gave Jared Leto’s vehicle a final boost at the box office in its tenth weekend. The film is forecast to gross $280,000 over the three-day frame, representing an 840% increase in ticket sales from last weekend.
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