By Matthew Moorcroft

The movies are back indeed! Jurassic World Dominion and Top Gun: Maverick fight it out for the top slot as movie theaters are the real winner this weekend. Let’s break it down.

1 – Jurassic World Dominion ($143.4 million)

Going into the weekend, Dominion was a massive wild card. Thanks to early negative critical reception, Universal tempered their expectations and predicted a $120 million opening weekend, though some sources were going as high as $150 million. Thankfully for Universal, it seems people still love the dinosaurs as Dominion opened to a really great $143.4 million, putting it around on par with Fallen Kingdom‘s opening ($148 million).

After the A- on Cinemascore, which indicated audience enjoyment, we could be seeing a critic-proof franchise being developed here. It’s gonna be hard to say for sure right now until the second weekend hits, but considering how poor the reviews were going in this is a strong debut. It’s also a much needed win for Universal, who have had a couple of high profile flops (particularly The 355) this year.

But time will tell if it will be a high grosser. Fallen Kingdom ended it’s run at $417.7 million domestic and $1.310 billion worldwide so Dominion could be another billion dollar grosser this year. If so, it would confirm that dinosaurs are indeed the key to audience success. After all, who doesn’t love cool reptile monsters?

2 – Top Gun: Maverick ($50 million)

All hail Tom Cruise. Despite hefty competition from Dominion, Maverick ended up holding it’s ground, falling only 45% in it’s third week of release to make another $50 million for a massive domestic total of $393.3 million. By next week, it will likely surpass Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to become the highest grosser of the year in North America, and outside of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water in the tail end of the year nothing really stands in it’s way.

Overseas the film is also doing incredible business. It has hit $747 million worldwide, making a billion all but guaranteed at this point and making it likely to surpass Mission: Impossible – Fallout as Cruise’s most successful film (Fallout made $791.1 million). This is amazing news for Paramount who seem keen on keeping Cruise around for as long as possible as they rank in the big bucks.

And while it seems to have permanently lost it’s IMAX screens, it’s very likely that it will also get a fourth of July boost that many of these films tend to get. And it’s next big piece of competition, Thor: Love and Thunder, opens late enough in it’s run that both films won’t be affected by each other (ya love to see it). Great stuff across the board for Maverick!

3 – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($4.9 million)

And thus, Doctor Strange officially begins to slow down. Dropping 47% in it’s sixth week of release, the film made another $4.9 million to add onto it’s domestic total. At $397.8 million, it’s crawling along to $400 million slowly but surely and will likely reach it by next weekend.

But it won’t surpass it by much. Alas, it seems Doctor Strange was unable to shackle away from it’s lackluster holds and while $400 million+ is a great turn out, it also shows that audiences were likely expecting a bigger event. The limits of the Marvel solo films have been shown – it seems only the huge team up films and Spider-Man can reach insanely high numbers.

Worldwide, the film is at $930.2 million, and will likely end up with an extra $20-40 million in the tank before winding down. And with the film hitting Disney+ on the 22nd, it seems $1 billion is now a pipe dream. Hey, at least Doctor Strange can be the $900 million superhero film we need for all you analysts out there who are frustrated by that blind spot.

4 – The Bob’s Burgers Movie ($2.4 million)

With the biggest drop and theater loss of the four films in the top 5, it’s no wonder that this will likely be the final weekend with Bob’s Burgers in these reports. Making only $2.4 million, it’s domestic total is at $27.1 million so far and will likely not move much past that save for crossing the $30 million thresehold.

Looking at the somewhat disappointing numbers for this, it’s easy to question why Disney bothered releasing this in theaters anyways, but it’s also easy to see why they would. The film didn’t cost much to make and the series has a strong, dedicated fanbase, and as such even a little bit of profit would be worth it in the long run. No, the blame needs to be placed on Disney/Fox for not marketing it properly and instead relying on a last minute ad campaign that didn’t go anywhere.

So what now? Disney/Fox is desperately struggling right now, and they’re biggest film of the year is still six months away. And with another potential blockbuster, Prey, being locked away on Hulu, it’s clear that the Fox buyout was bad for business across the board. Almost like monopolies aren’t a good thing, huh?

5 – The Bad Guys ($2.2 million)

The little movie that could, The Bad Guys continues to crawl along and make a decent profit all things considered. Having finally passed $90 million ($91.5 million in total, for context), the film is still chugging along and adding numbers to it’s total as it makes one last dash to the finish line before Lightyear opens next this coming weekend and steals it’s thunder and audiences.

At $223.1 million worldwide as well, those aren’t shabby international numbers either. While the film is likely gonna be lost in the sea of massive returns that both Lightyear and Minions: The Rise of Gru are gonna receive, for a smaller scale animated film with zero IP attachment this is a damn good number. Plus, it gives Universal more reason to be happy as this turned out to be a good weekend for them across the board.

The film hits Blu-Ray next week, so we should see it leave theaters very soon and hit a good profit on home video. Universal should be very happy with these numbers overall, this has been a fun movie to track as it’s success has been noticeable. Great stuff across the board here.