Box Office: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Smoking Competition With Stunning Projected 33% Drop

Tom Cruise is king at the domestic box office once again.

Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick” is soaring to the top of the charts for its second weekend of release, drawing in a commanding $25 million on Friday from 4,751 locations. After enjoying the widest domestic opening last weekend with 4,732 North American cinemas, “Maverick” actually added 19 more for its sophomore outing.

The studio is projecting a $84.5 million through Sunday, a stunning 33% dive from its $124 million three-day opening haul. A soft decline like that is a superlative achievement, marking the smallest drop in domestic box office history for a film that opened above $100 million. To compare, recent high grossers like “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “The Batman” fell 67% and 50.4%, respectively, in their sophomore outings.

Even for a star like Cruise, a drop as low as 33% is largely unheard of in recent years. The actor’s last blockbuster, 2018’s “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” fell 42.5% in its second weekend after opening to $61.2 million.

All this is to say, “Maverick” is doing very well. The film continues to draw in audiences of all ages. Word-of-mouth has been spectacular for the sequel, with the film earning a rare “A+” grade on Cinema Score, indicating maximum approval from general ticketbuyers.

Paramount expects “Maverick” to expand its domestic gross to $290 million through Sunday. It is already Cruise’s biggest film ever at the domestic box office, passing his previous best, the $243.3 million haul of 2005’s “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 aviators for a tricky mission. Alongside 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 10. Universal kicked off the release of “Dominion” overseas, debuting to a strong $16.7 million on Thursday with an expected weekend gross of $50 million plus.

Directed by Colin Trevorrow, who helmed 2015’s first “Jurassic World,” “Dominion” unites stars of “Jurassic Park” films past and present, including Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and newcomers DeWanda Wise and Mamoudou Athie.

More to come…

Source: Read Full Article