By Matthew Moorcroft

After it’s already impressive first weekend, Top Gun: Maverick flies away with the competition once again with record-breaking drops. Let’s break it down.

1 – Top Gun: Maverick ($86 million)

The already amazing performing Maverick continued it’s early summer dominance into it’s second weekend. Bolstered by a lack new of releases, fantastic word of mouth, and hitting all four demographics with ease, it fell an astonishingly low 32% in it’s second weekend. With the 8th-best second weekend in history as well as the lowest drop of any film with a $100 mil+ opening weekend, the film also managed to hit $291.6 million domestically and $548.6 million worldwide.

This puts a $1 billion into a near-locked position, and it’s shockingly strong international performance is helping that as well, as it’s breaking records in both South Korea and Japan, and performing quite well in most of Europe. It’s rare to see a film hit all of these places at once and this well, especially one so American centric, but it’s a big win for Paramount who between this, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and The Lost City is having a great year.

The question is now how far will it go next week as Jurassic World Dominion opens as it’s real big piece of competition. Jurassic World has had a history of over-performing on it’s opening weekends, so estimates are anywhere from $160-220 million. It will likely depend on word of mouth and reviews for it, but with Top Gun holding so well, we could see a situation where people flock to that for a third week while Dominion suffers. We shall see.

2 – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($9.2 million)

In what will likely be it’s last week to really make some true cash, Doctor Strange managed to hold pretty decently well, all things considered. Five weeks in, the film managed to drop 42% to make another $9.2 million to add to it’s total as it has reached $388.7 million domestically. $400 million is basically a lock at this point and will likely reach within the next two weeks, which would be a big win for the film.

Also in big wins for the film, it has hit $909.4 million worldwide, and while it’s unlikely to hit a billion at this point (Top Gun clearly took out most of it’s sails), it’s still a great number and pretty in-line with most-Avengers movie boosts we’ve seen in the past for characters. Plus, it means that this film, ironically, could be the first Marvel movie to gross in the $900 million range, a range that has become oddly difficult to reach in the past decade.

With Doctor Strange widing down, all eyes turn to Thor: Love and Thunder which is expected to make a big splash when it hits in July. That film is coming off goodwill from both Ragnarok and the prior two Avengers films of which Thor was a favourite, and as such I totally see Love and Thunder outgrossing Doctor Strange in the long run.

3 – The Bob’s Burgers Movie ($4.5 million)

In less then stellar news, Bob’s Burgers proved that sometimes things on TV don’t translate to box office success at the movies as it dropped a nasty 64% in it’s second weekend to make $4.5 million. With $22.2 million so far, it’s safe to say that Bob’s Burgers just didn’t have the same cultural perception that other animated shows-turned movies did and suffered for it.

It also gives an interesting case study into how front-loaded franchise films can be. Despite opening low, it’s large drop suggests most of the people who wanted to see it saw it opening weekend and were fans, and the rest of the public stayed away. This is always a risk with franchise fare and we are seeing right now when it doesn’t pay off.

Still, the film will likely have a healthy life on streaming. The film was buried to an extent by weak marketing on the part of Disney/Fox and the show does exceptionally well on both network TV and streaming, which would incite people to watch it as simply more of an extended episode. While it will end up with a net profit for Disney/Fox, it’s another one in the can theatrically for a studio still struggling to survive post-buyout.

4 – The Bad Guys ($3.3 million)

One of the biggest success stories of the past month, The Bad Guys continues to impress in what will likely be it’s last week in the Top 5. Making $3.3 million on a drop of just 29%, the lowest drop of the Top 5, it has reached $87.3 million domestically and $218.3 million worldwide.

$90 million domestic is just within reach, and it should be able to cross it by the end of it’s run. And while $100 million is a pipe dream now, it’s good to see an original animated film have this leggy of a run, especially one that in an environment where animated films have been struggling lately. And with still two more weeks till Lightyear, The Bad Guys could hold onto some screens for another couple of weeks.

But it’s unlikely. The film is slowly but surely begun to lose it’s momentum and while it’s still here in the Top 5, it’s unlikely it will be here next week when Dominion likely pushes it out. Still, it’s a great run for it and one of the more impressive showings for a film in quite a while – great work on the part of DreamWorks and Universal.

5 – Downton Abbey: A New Era ($3 million)

Falling another 49% in it’s third weekend, Downton Abbey: A New Era is collapsing in on itself as the older audience clearly thought that Top Gun: Maverick was their option. With $3 million added to it’s total of $35.7 million, it’s a poor showing for the once great series that had an impressive showing back in 2019 prior to the pandemic.

It’s likely the pandemic itself that is to blame for this bad run. Older audiences have been slowly coming back to theaters, yes, but Downton Abbey wasn’t the big draw that they needed. Instead, it was Tom Cruise in an airplane as Top Gun likely stole most of it’s audience away as that film has been performing very well with older audiences.

Could the film have a successful life on streaming? More then likely – if anything Downton Abbey could use this an excuse to revive the main show and get more eyes on it, as Downton Abbey was, at one point, the most popular show on TV. Hopefully this also gives studios more incentives to market their films aimed at older audiences better, as many of them have been struggling to get off the ground.

Other Numbers

The rest of the Top 10 had some fun tidbits as well. Everything Everywhere All At Once managed to $60 million domestically and has hit $78.1 million worldwide, which is just a fantastic number for a small, A24 indie film. The film has clearly resonated with audiences and it should guarantee big numbers for the Daniels’ next project.

The Indian film Vikram also had an excellent showing this week, debuting in North America in only 465 theaters and yet grossing $1.8 million with the second-highest per-theater average of the week behind Top Gun: Maverick. Vikram is likely being bolstered by both spectacular reviews as well as recent surge of interest in Indian cinema due to the successful release of RRR on Netflix.

And finally, David Cronenberg’s newest, Crimes of the Future, opened to 773 theaters to gross $1.1 million in it’s first weekend of release. The film expands to wide release next weekend where it will likely get something of a boost, though the film’s obtuse and disturbing content will likely turn off audiences. Still, diehard Cronenberg fans clearly turned up to this as it had one of Neon’s better openings in a while.