David Leitch’s action-packed Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt as a hellbent assassin, is leading a quiet weekend at the North American box office.
In normal times, Hollywood studios would continue to release event films throughout August. This year is different as the entertainment business emerges from the pandemic and grapples with production and post-production delays.
Bullet Train is considered the last big Hollywood studio title of summer 2022. The film is doing OK business and should earn $13 million this weekend from 4,357 theaters for a 10-day domestic total of $54.2 million. One hitch: even with little competition, Bullet Train looks to fall more than 57 percent from its opening weekend, although that isn’t unusual for a male-skewing action pic. The movie earned $3.9 million on Friday.
Elsewhere, Top Gun: Maverick is making an impressive comeback in its 12th weekend, thanks to being released in hundreds of theaters, including premium screen venues. The Paramount and Skydance movie is pacing to earn $6.6 million for the weekend from 3,181 cinemas for a second-place finish. It’s certain now that the Tom Cruise movie will jump the $700 million mark domestically. (Globally, it has earned north of $1.35 billion, one of the best showings of all time.)
Holdovers DC League of Super Pets, Nope and Thor: Love and Thunder are expected to round out the top five.
Other titles cracking the top 10 chart include A24’s specialty film Bodies Bodies Bodies, which looks to come in No. 8 with an estimated $3 million from 928 theaters. Directed by Halina Reijn, the black comedy turns the slasher genre on its head and stars Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Pete Davidson, Rachel Sennott, Myha’la Herrold, Chase Sui Wonders and Lee Pace. A24 is rolling out the film slowly throughout the month; it began its run in a smattering of cinemas last weekend.
Another new offering this weekend is Lionsgate’s Fall, an adventure-thriller about a group of climbers. The movie, directed by Scott Mann and starring Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner, may fall outside the top 10 with a projected $2 million debut from 1,548 locations.
Indie distributor Gravitas Ventures is also taking advantage of the slowdown in summer tentpole fare. The company is releasing Mack and Rita in roughly 2,000 theaters, albeit to dismal results. The adult-skewing comedy — starring Elizabeth Lail as a 30-year-old woman who wakes up after a bachelorette party to discover she is 70 years old, with the older version of herself played by Diane Keaton — may not even get to $1 million in its box office debut.
Fall received a B CinemaScore from audiences, while Mack and Rita flunked with a rare D+.
That would put Mack and Rita behind this weekend’s rerelease of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which looks to earn $1.1 or $1.2 million from only 389 theaters.
Weekend numbers will be updated Sunday.