There aren’t many directors who are positioned singularly as box office draws in modern Hollywood – with Jordan Peele, Christopher Nolan, and Quentin Tarantino being some exceptions – but there’s an argument to be made that Baz Luhrmann should be on the list. Having made hits like Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge, and The Great Gatsby, he’s earned a sizable fanbase, and his reputation is only growing with the release of his latest movie, Elvis, which is holding its own in competition with 2022’s big summer blockbusters including Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick and Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World: Dominion
Check out the full rundown of this weekend’s Top 10 at the box office (including the exceptionally close race at the top) in the chart below, and join me after for analysis!
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Top Gun: Maverick | $30,500,176 | $521,723,000 | 3 | 3,948 |
| 2. Elvis* | $30,500,000 | $30,500,000 | Row 1 - Cell 3 | 3,906 |
| 3. Jurassic World: Dominion | $26,440,000 | $302,775,820 | 1 | 4,233 |
| 4. The Black Phone* | $23,370,000 | $23,370,000 | Row 3 - Cell 3 | 3,150 |
| 5. Lightyear | $17,669,000 | $88,770,257 | 2 | 4,255 |
| 6. Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness | $1,725,000 | $409,192,074 | 4 | 1,855 |
| 7. Jugjugg Jeeyo* | $604,000 | $604,000 | Row 6 - Cell 3 | 318 |
| 8. Everything Everywhere All At Once | $533,346 | $66,088,446 | 7 | 524 |
| 9. The Bob’s Burgers Movie | $513,000 | $31,042,995 | 5 | 590 |
| 10. The Bad Guys | $440,000 | $95,488,025 | 6 | 1,033 |
Top: Gun Maverick Returns As The Number One Movie In America With Another Great Weekend
Tom Cruise and the flyboys in Top Gun: Maverick faced some serious competition in the last couple weeks in the form of the aforementioned Jurassic World: Dominion and Angus MacLane’s Lightyear, but after moving down to third place last weekend, the big blockbuster again looks to be sitting atop the domestic box office chart. Compared to its last Friday-to-Sunday, the action movie only dipped 32 percent in ticket sales, and it added another $30.5 million to its global total.
We will, however, have to wait for the dust to settle and final numbers are in to firmly declare that Top Gun: Maverick is once again the biggest movie in the United States. With the estimated totals you see above, you may have noticed that there is only a $176 difference between the Tom Cruise flick and Elvis. When final tabulations are made tonight, it’s possible that the biopic will move to the top of the chart… or the Top Gun sequel may end up widening the gap between them.
No matter what the final total ends up being, Top Gun: Maverick’s success this weekend has seen the blockbuster pass yet another major milestone – namely earning north of $500 million at the domestic box office. It is the first Tom Cruise movie to reach that number, as he has never had a film before this one make over $300 million in the United States and Canada (Steven Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds set the previous high water mark for the actor, the sci-fi disaster feature having made $234.3 million at home in 2005). All of this isn’t terribly surprising given its powerful opening weekend performance in late May.
Worldwide, it’s only a matter of time before Top Gun: Maverick not only catches up with Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, but becomes the first 2022 movie to make over $1 billion at the box office. It has made $940 million to date globally, and has made just $3.8 million less than the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie (which, it should be noted, is still playing and continually adding to its own box office gross). When the movie crosses $1 billion, it will be only the second title to do so since the start of the pandemic in 2020 – the other billion dollar blockbuster being Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Elvis May Or May Not Be The New #1 Movie In the United States, But It Still Had A Terrific Opening Weekend
It was all the way back in early 2018 that Baz Luhrmann started getting Elvis off the ground, and it was a project that dealt with some notable setbacks during production – including Tom Hanks being one of the first celebrities to contract COVID-19 when the film was in its early weeks of shooting. The movie cost a pretty penny to make by musical biopic standards, with Variety saying it had a reported $85 million budget (before marketing and publicity), but it would appear that this story has a happy ending, as the feature is competing well in its first weekend of release.
Elvis is not the movie with the strongest opening weekend numbers for Baz Luhrmann, as that record still belongs to The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio (which made an impressive $50.1 million opening one week after Shane’s Black’s Iron Man 3 came out in May 2013). The biopic’s start can most definitely be called impressive for some of the same reasons, however – namely its ability to perform well while facing off against some serious box office competition. It was not a given that the new release would be able to hold its own against Top: Gun Maverick and Jurassic World: Dominion, but bringing in $30.5 million and taking second place demonstrates legitimate popularity.
The estimated three-day total for Elvis is just big enough for the film to rank in the Top 10 of opening weekends for 2022. Should numbers hold firm, the success will bump Adam and Aaron Nee’s The Lost City from that particular list, as the romantic comedy/adventure movie made $30.45 million when it premiered in late March. The movie sits well behind the number nine spot in the rankings, however, as Daniel Espinosa’s Morbius sold $39 million’s worth of tickets in the first weekend of April.
The Black Phone Takes Fourth Place In Its Opening Weekend, But Is Still A Big Win For Horror
While the Top 3 at the box office this weekend is dominated by features with blockbuster budgets, the performance by Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone this weekend marks a different kind of terrific success. The critically-acclaimed horror film, produced by Blumhouse, only cost a reported $18 million to make, and it’s already surpassed that number bringing in $23.4 million over the last three days.
It’s the second biggest opening weekend for a horror film thus far in 2022. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Scream made $30 million when it hit theaters in January, but The Black Phone easily out-grossed the third-biggest genre release this year, as Ti West’s X only made $4.3 million following its festival premiere in March.
Coming up, Hollywood has yet another big, highly anticipated title set to hit the big screen, as Kyle Balda's Minions: The Rise Of Gru will be arriving in wide release on Friday. How will it fare against so much big competition? Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to find out.
To learn about all of the films hitting cinemas in what remains of the year, check out our 2022 Movie Release Calendar.
