- Top Gun: Maverick – £15,924,629 – NE
2D took (£14,076,195) 88.4% and IMAX took (£1,848,434) 11.6% from 50 cinemas; PLF screens were also very strong but even with 56 minutes of exclusive footage ScreenX BO was soft probably as it is seen as a gimmick format to older audiences.
Took £4.73m from previews on Wednesday (£2.7m) and Thursday (£2m) took 28.9% of the opening weekend between Black Mass and The Fault in Our Stars (close to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Wanted and Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
Had the biggest opening day for Tom Cruise films in the UK and the biggest Tom Cruise opening 84% more than 2005’s War of the Worlds £8.64m (£13.8m inflation inflated)
The biggest single-day opening for Paramount Pictures in the UK and the second biggest in the UK after Shrek The Third £16.67m opening was inflated with £6.34m from previews) and £24,82m inflation inflated and 3rd biggest inflation inflated between Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (£17,683,279) and Transformers: Dark of the Moon (£13,313,258).
Took £3.3m Friday (74% share of BO) took £3.9m on Saturday and had a small drop on Sunday and then took £2.5m on Monday
UK Weekday BO is hard to find so hard to make any direct comparisons but Spectre took £5.75m on Wednesday; Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom £2.16m on Wednesday and £1.49m Thursday while and Tenet took £2.04m from Weds/Thurs.
UK 5-day opening was 12.57% of its US opening and Fri-Sun was 8.94% of US opening
Opened in 737 cinemas the 5th widest opening but as with all tentpoles in many multiplexes the film is playing on over 6 screens with screenings every 15 minutes in some cinemas with 50+ shows a day and 250+ over its 5-day opening.
27th biggest opening between Top Gun: Maverick and Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (close to Star Wars Rogue One, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Marvel Avengers Assemble and Quantum of Solace) and 57th biggest inflation inflated opening between The Twilight Saga: New Moon and Iron Man 3 (close to Die Another Day, Incredibles, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves and The Matrix Revolutions).
47th biggest Fri-Sun (£11,331,497) between iron Man 3 and Suicide Squad
Took 82.6% of the top 10 having the 15th highest BO share between 08 October 2021 #1 No Time To Die £15,235,947 2nd weekend (82.81%) and 20 May 2005 #1 Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith £14,361,469 (82.50%).
Of all the legacy sequels Top Gun Maverick has probably the most in comparison with 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opening with £12,227,799 30.3% more with 45% ticket inflation £17,683,279 inflation inflated) opening 19 years after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Surprisingly Top Gun Maverick had the biggest IMAX opening in the UK there are now many more IMAX cinemas in the UK than when The Dark Knight Rises opened 10 years ago which broke box office records at the BFI IMAX with £1 million in booking at BFI Imax, selling over 60,000 tickets bought with 43 shows sold out. In comparison, Top Gun Maverick had a couple of screenings sold out but the difference was prices were 72% more from £17.50 to £30.
What I find the most interesting about Top Gun Maverick was it was originally due to open in the UK on July 17th, 2020, as its UK release was delayed 2 weeks due to the Euro. While exhibitors believed Christopher Nolan’s delusions of grandeur Tenet was never going to be the saviour of cinema they thought it was going to be. Not saying that in hindsight as all of Christopher Nolan’s biggest films including Inception and The Dark Knight Rises all opened in a crowded marketplace, 2010 Inception was #1 for only one week in the UK as Toy Story 3 opened a week after but that didn’t stop both holding steadily thought the rest of the summer holidays. There are some films like No Time To Die and Spider-Man No Way Home that doesn’t need other films opening near them to be successful but most others can’t do it alone.
Much has been written about why Top Gun Maverick opened strongly but the answer was simple it was the reason why Jerry Bruckheimer was so interested in making a film after reading an article about Top Gun pilots and seeing it as Star Wars on Earth. If Disney can remake Star Wars A New Hope as The Force Awakens then with surely can do the same with Top Gun when you have Tom Cruise front and centre.. it was all about timing the audience was primed in a similar way to how they were for No Time To Die and Spider-Man.
After Top Gun: Maverick generated huge media coverage and buzz after the Cannes premiere and then Royal Film Performance it never made any sense that its release date was 5 days afterwards as the audience was primed and ready to go on Friday. As Tom Cruise is all about the cinema experience why didn’t Top Gun Maverick have an exclusive IMAX opening between Friday and next Tuesday and it could have had a 10-day opening rather than 5.
After the predictable reactions from exhibitors at CinemaCon and critics the question for Top Gun Maverick was never about if they were going to like it, it was always like all legacy sequels if their children would be as excited to see it as their dads as they were for other legacy sequels including Jurassic World and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Top Gun Maverick is as critics have said non-stop action and it starts exactly like the original film with the same music starting full of nostalgia to the original film and that continues throughout the film, so its understand that when exhibitors and critics saw the film in crowded cinemas full of fans of the original the reactions would be as they were. The film gets a bit silly when Maverick steals an aeroplane from the airfield they bombed and was immediately able to fly it making it feel like the Clint Eastwood film Firefox.
Top price tickets at the Odeon Leicester Sq. have increased to £32.50 and BFI IMAX £30, BFI IMAX prices have increased 33% since Morbius opened 8 weeks ago. So have to ask if this recovery is real or is fuelled by huge price increases by most exhibitors. Top Gun opened in 1986 with £441,257 from 234 cinemas average ticket price was £1.88.
In the 80s Paramount Pictures had enormous success including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Flashdance, Trading Places, Footloose, Beverly Hills Cop, Witness, Ferris Bueller Day Off, Top Gun, Crocodile Dundee, Untouchables, Fatal Attraction, Coming To America, Naked Gun and Pet Sematary. So, no surprise that the studio looked back on rebooting many of them over the last decade when the studio struggled against rivals after losing to the likes of Marvel, Blumhouse and Dreamworks.
In 2011 Paramount celebrated its 100th anniversary being the biggest studio in the US and the world but over the following decade, they were the lowest-performing studio. Jim Gianopulos became President of Paramount in 2017 and slowly put together strong slates having strong success with A Quiet Place the following year and was setting up Top Gun Maverick to be the jewel in the middle of a strong slate in 2019.
But when Top Gun Maverick was delayed so were other films that were part of that slate and then came COVID which saw the studio sell off many of their films to streamers and but then Jim Gianopulos left Paramount in September 2021 and was replaced by Brian Robbins with the studio looking to revert to making films from Nickelodeon and MTV Movies which is what they did in 2006 under previous boss Brad Grey unsuccessfully. This would likely see the studio cutting back from high budget films like Top Gun Maverick and Mission Impossible and concentrating on lower budget films.
Despite the success of Top Gun Maverick and the final two Mission Impossible films with Brian Robbins coming into Paramount and their plans to make one film each week for P+ and plans to adopt Nickelodeon and MTV labels again, they will be making lower budget films in future, but they went this approach under Brad Grey 16 years ago and it didn’t work then and it’s not going to work now. then they got lucky taking distribution rights to Marvel the year before but should have locked down the deal further as soon as Iron Man was a hit, there were even rumours they had first refused to buy Marvel and wanted to but Viacom refused them and then a few weeks Disney acquired Marvel… as just think in an alternative universe Paramount would be bigger than Disney now with Marvel, Blumhouse, Dreamworks, Indiana Jones 5 … would be interesting to see what Disney would have had in this universe.
Jerry Bruckheimer returned to Paramount Pictures in a swap deal with Disney in 2013 with Disney acquitting distribution rights to Indiana Jones. This was despite his deal with Disney ending in 2014. Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson (until he died in 1996) had been at Disney since 1994 after they left a $500m production deal at Paramount in 1990 giving them the freedom to make any 5 films they liked without studio approval. But only made one film as part of the production deal Days of Thunder reteaming with Tom Cruise and director Tony Scott as they fell out with the studio over the Beverly Hills Cop 3 budget.
In the early 90s were several of these lucrative production deals made with studios including Largo Entertainment at 20th Century Fox which moved to Universal Pictures in 1994 and a $500m production deal with Lightstorm Entertainment in 1992 with 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures. What connects these three massive production deals is that there were plans to many half a dozen n of more films but only a couple were made. Jerry Bruckheimer returned to Paramount in 2013 but only made one film Gemini Man in 2019 before Top Gun Maverick, while also producing Bad Boys For Life for Sony and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Don’t tell No Tales.
Jerry Bruckheimer produced many huge films at Disney including Crimson Tide, The Rock, Armageddon, Enemy of the State, Coyote Ugly and Pearl Harbour in his first 7 years but over the following decade, the films he liked to make were very different to what Disney was interested in making, which were more family advance like Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure rather than the action films. After Prince of Persia: The Sands of Times, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and The Lone Ranger disappointed even the success of Pirates of the Caribbean sequels wasn’t going to stop Disney from renewing his contract so do have to wonder why Paramount felt they needed to buy out his contract.
After the disappointing performance of Gemini Man there was reported in the trade press Paramount wouldn’t extend their production deal with Paramount, which was due to end last year, but with the deal of the release of Top Gun Maverick and how positive the reaction has been, they will surely have already extended his deal Jerry Bruckheimer has also produced Secret Headquarters for Paramount opening in August but will be interesting to see what he makes next for the studio as it’s unlikely there will ever be a Top Gun Maverick Jr.
Industry hype positioned Top Gun Maverick as a far bigger film than it is similarly Christopher Nolan’s delusions of grandeur made Tenet become the saviour of cinema. I grew up with Tom Cruise films Top Gun was probably the first I saw in the cinema and the first 15 I saw aged 13 in 1986 and have seen most of his films in cinemas ever since and for me as for you a Tom Cruise film was an event but sadly over the last 15 years he has been gazumped by properties .. over this time he has become the last action hero and the greatest showman but he can’t compete against comic-book movies, Jurassic World 3, Minions 2 and Avatar 2.
This was similar to the industry believing Tenet was going to be the saviour of cinema but this time around Tom Cruise isn’t the one having delusions of grandeur he has done everything and more to make the film a hit but it was never going to be the size hit the industry and exhibitors believe it was going to be similar to Tenet.
Much has been made about the 5-minute standing ovation Top Gun Maverick received as US films have often received muted responses from the glitterati as The Great Gatsby and The Da Vinci Code which instead received boos. Most films that premiered at Cannes after Top Gun received far longer standing ovations including Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis which was 10 minutes.
Three years ago Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood received 7 minutes and was seen as disappointing as previous Inglourious Basterds received 11. Standing ovations mean very little as in 2011 The Beaver received 10 minutes received negative reviews.
The longest-standing ovations at Cannes have been Pan’s Labyrinth 22, Fahrenheit 9/11 20, Mud 18, The Neon Demon 17, Capernaum 15, and The Paperboy 15 starring ex Nicole Kidman who was missing in the Tom Cruise montage shown before the film.
The original film opened in October 1986 with £441,267 from 235 cinemas taking £5.5m (£25m inflation inflated) but impossible to compare with any films released over the last 25+ years.
Of Tom Cruise’s previous films only 2005’s War of the Worlds has a comparable opening as it’s his last big non-Mission Impossible opening in the UK opening with £8,644,787 including £1,116,200 previews (£13,802,293 inflation inflated) taking £30,367,791 (£48,485,305 inflation inflated)e’s
Other comparisons are legacy sequels Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (£12,227,799 including £2,047,618 previews), Jurassic World (£19,350,727 including £2,514,284 previews), Star Wars The Force Awakens, Spider-Man No Way Home, Independence Day Resurgence (£5,067,855 including £944,356 previews), Ghostbusters Afterlife (£4,314,263 including £549,710 previews), Mad Max: Fury Road (£4,538,933 including £638,690 previews), Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, Creed, Rocky Balboa, The Matrix Resurrections, Terminator: Dark Fate, Halloween, Scream, Live Free or Die Hard and Rambo.
All of them have some direct connection to the original film made over a decade before often featuring the next generation with a legacy character dying and their children following in their footsteps in the planned at the time sequels.
Tom Cruise’s 44 films have taken $4.12bn in the US, $6.29bn internationally and $10.234bn worldwide; he had huge success in the 80s and 90s and is the last action hero outlasting Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger along with Nicolas Cage and Harrison Ford (Harrison Ford may have returned in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and will return in Indiana Jones 5 but he hasn’t had the continued success in action films as Tom Cruise has had over the last 25 years due to Mission Impossible films. But as his biggest hits were in the 80s and 90s Top Gun, Rain Man, A Few Good Men, the Firm, and Interview With the Vampire hasn’t had a $1bn film globally, that said inflation inflated both Top Gun and Rain Man would be $1bn+ hits.
In September 2021 Paramount Pictures delayed Top Gun Maverick from its November release date to May using the excuse of COVID but it was probably more to do with seeing how Ghostbusters Afterlife performed as it was a similar nostalgic lead sequel that was going to play heavily to original fans despite targetting Stranger Things audience. As Ghostbusters Afterlife received rave reviews from its fan screening at NYCC in October but its media screening reaction was far more mixed getting a 63% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Critical reaction has been very positive but how much is nostalgia towards the original than the film itself as many of those critics reviewing the sequel were teens when the original opened so it became their film, but critically in 1986 the film received mixed reviews.
As with Doctor Strange and The Batman, exhibitors have increased ticket prices for Top Gun Maverick with BFI IMAX up to £30 from £29 for Doctor Strange 2 while Odeon Leicester Square is up to £32.50 from £30 top price for Doctor Strange 2 and Fantastic Beasts 3. 36 years ago Top Gun opened at the Empire Leicester Square in 70mm for about £3.
Surely no surprise in how Top Gun Maverick has done as for the last 3 years the industry has included it within the top 5 saviours of cinema alongside Spider-Man, No Time To Die and Tenet.
Had Top Gun Maverick opened in the 80s or 90s as Ghostbusters 2 T2, Indiana Jones 3 and Beverly Hills Cop 2 it would have been part of the A-Team but now DS2, JW3, T4, M2, BP2 and A2 all superseded it. Many senior executives within the industry grew up seeing Top Gun in the 80s, so they have so much nostalgia for the sequel and believed the sequel was a far bigger film than it ever was. As even in 1986 when the film opened it’s unlikely Paramount expected it to be the success it was as they would have surely opened it Memorial Day weekend if they did instead Poltergeist 2 and Cobra opened that weekend and Top Gun 2 weeks earlier.
Surely Top Gun Maverick is just doing what exhibitors thought Tenet was going to perform, but not saying this in hindsight but Tenet was never going to be the saviour of cinema as like Top Gun Maverick it needed to open alongside other films unlike No Time To Die or Spider-Man that can hold their own and will just cannibalise anything opening around it. While comic-book only brings success to the next comic-book movie Top Gun Maverick opening will help JW3, Lightyear, Elvis, Where the Crawdads Sing, Nope, Bullet Train and Secret Headquarters, was surprised the trailer wasn’t attached to Top Gun 2 as it’s the next Jerry Bruckheimer film opening in August.
If Paramount were going to renew his contract, they would have attached the trailer for his next film with Top Gun 2, or is this another example of how the studio handles its relationships with talent. Even Tom Cruise got the cold shoulder from the studio after Mission Impossible 3, 2006 ending his 14-year history with the studio Sumner Redstone said. “But we don’t think that someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot.”
After leaving Paramount Tom Cruise and his then producing partner Paula Wagner became heads of United Artists in 2006 making Lions For Lambs and Valkyrie both flopped and in 2008 Paula Wagner left United Artists and split from being Tom Cruise’s production partner.
Due to a distribution deal with Dreamworks, the studio released 2008’s Tropic Thunder featuring a cameo by Tom Cruise playing a studio boss Les Grossman. In February 2010 Tom Cruise signed up to star in Mission Impossible 4 and then a year later to star in One-Shot which became Jack Reacher. soon after Tom Cruise returned to Paramount to make and later sequels, Jack Reacher and sequel and Top Gun Maverick.
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- 2. Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness – £1,371,319 – £37,764,834
Dropped 53.8% in its fourth weekend
13th biggest MCU 3rd weekend between Iron Man 3 (£1,400,462) and Captain America: Civil War (£1,334,385)
Took £429,691+ than Doctor Strange’s 4th weekend (£1,371,319) was the opening weekend for Fantastic Beasts opened with £15.33m (no previews).
74th biggest 4th weekend between Downton Abbey and Moulin Rouge (close to The Incredibles, Shang-Chi, Dune and Interstellar); took £293,184 less than The Batman’s fourth weekend (£1, 664,503) and £399,114 less than Captain Marvel (££1,770,433).
It’s the 7th biggest MCU film after 3 weeks between Black Panther (£39,830,023) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (£36,309,702) close to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Captain America: Civil War and Iron Man 3.
84th biggest film in the UK between Paddington and Deadpool (close to Fifty Shades of Grey, Fast 7, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Aladdin) and 174th biggest inflation inflated between Sex and the City and I am Legend (close to Batman, X-Men 2, Goldeneye and Mission: Impossible).
13th biggest comic-book movie between Captain Marvel and Deadpool (close to Avengers Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Far From Home and iron Man 3) and 24th biggest inflation inflated between Deadpool and Captain America: Civil War (close to Men In Black 2, Batman, Batman Vs Superman and Hancock).
4th biggest film since cinemas reopened between The Batman and Sing 2.
The 28 MCU films have taken almost £950m and almost £1bn inflation inflated; Thor: Love and Thunder opening in July will see the 29 MCU films taking over £1bn at the UK BO since 2008.
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Down 42% in its third weekend; adding 38 more screens playing in 533 screens up from 495 screens in the second weekend and 148 screens in the opening weekend. But as with all holdovers it might have played in 533 cinemas while in previous weeks it played full day screenings it had far more limited shows in its third weekend 9my local went from all-day screenings on Tuesday to one 2 pm show on Wednesday), as with Top Gun opening in over 6 screens in multiplexes and Doctor Strange 2 still showing in 2 screens all other films had far more limited screenings this is also why new releases have such a high percentage of BO share.
In 2020 Parasite also expanded over several weeks opened #4 with £1,397,387 from 137 screens expanding into 428 screens in the second weekend up 81% (132% without previews) #2 taking £2,523,518 and then into 565 screens in third-weekend #2 down 32% taking £1,722,236. Parasite was able to maintain full daily performances in screens over that time something that Everything Everywhere hasn’t been able to so it went on to take £12.03m but its BO was affected by the first COVID lockdown…
Everything Everywhere is the 3rd biggest A24 film in the UK behind Moonlight £4.3m and Hereditary £5.6m, the other two were released by Attitude and Entertainment Films, it was surprising that A24 went for self-releasing in the UK as they normally release their films through Entertainment Films as they are distributing A24’s Men this weekend in the UK.
When Parasite won the Golden Globe in 2020 Bong Joon Ho said, “Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” This follows similar comments in 2019 from Alfonso Cuarón after winning Best Foreign-Language Oscar for Roma saying, “I grew up watching foreign-language films and learning so much from them — films like Citizen Kane, Jaws, Rashomon, The Godfather and Breathless.”
But despite the success of Parasite in 2020 foreign-language films have struggled to find an audience in the UK over the last 20 years.
In 2002 131 foreign language films were released in the UK 38% of the films released took 2.2% of the yearly box office with Y Tu Mama Tambien taking £1.74m was the biggest foreign language film of the year.
Over the following years, the number of foreign language films released has more than doubled but its box office share and its box office haven’t grown, so similarly to the growth of Event Cinema much of this is due to the number of titles released with box office shared more rather than audience growth.
In 2016 368 foreign language films were released in the UK; 44.8% of all film releases, but only took 2.4% of the box office while in 2017; 349 foreign language films were released in the UK taking £28.6m taking 2.1% of the yearly box office; The Handmaiden taking £1.5m was the biggest foreign language film of the year.
Biggest foreign language films in the UK
2020’s Parasite £12.03m; 2004’s The Passion of Christ £11.1m; 2001’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon £9.4m; 2001’s Amelie £5m; 2007’s Apocalypto £4.1m; 2004’s Hero and House of Flying Daggers £3.8m.
Even though Everything Everywhere is a foreign language film as with Parasite it isn’t playing as a foreign language film would play making it very hard to compare it to any other film, but some have compared it to the quirky Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind took £4,874,405 and £8,163,814 inflation inflated.
Michelle Yeoh has starred in many films over the last 20+ years including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Crazy Rich Asians and Shang-Chi and will star in the four Avatar sequels, with co-star Key-Huy Quan previously starring in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies.
Down 53.7% in its fifth weekend; 63.1% less than Downtown Abbey 4th weekend (£949,205) and 57.5% less than Murder on the Orient Express (£824,494).
The 475th biggest film between The Beach and Crocodile Dundee II (close to The Devil Wears Prada, Sense and Sensibility, American Hustle and What Lies Beneath) and 736th biggest inflation inflated between The Exorcist (RE) and Alien Resurrection (close to Runaway Bride, Juno, The Aviator and The Lady in the Van).
Has overtaken 2001’s Gosford Park also written by Julian Fellowes took £12,259,248 (£22,268,006 inflation inflated) Downton Abbey TV series was a spinoff of the film.
2019’s Downton Abbey dropped 35% taking £949,205 #5 and £25,394,967 89.9% of £28,248,361; took 5.45x opening; stayed #1 for 3 weeks.
Other fifth weekend grey pound films include
2021’s Death on the Nile dropped 19% taking £231,229 #7 and £7,565,193 of £8,012,201
2012’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel dropped 51% taking £747,122 and £15,674,349 77.2% of £20,308,480
2017’s Murder on the Orient Express dropped 41% taking £824,494 and £22,127,760 91.6% of £24,140,635
2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby dropped 37% taking £1,888,986 and £41,991,553 87.2% of £48,150,737
2013’s Philomena dropped 46% taking £289,860 and £9,788,671 93.4% of £10,470,225
2006’s The Queen dropped 47% £269,178 taking £6,314,894 67.3% of £9,381,693
2003’s Calendar Girls dropped 30% £681,748 taking £16,515,918 81.8% of £20,174,133
2021’s House of Gucci #11 £47,960 dropped 83% 198 screens and £8,349,957 of £9,964,144
- 5. The Bob’s Burgers Movie – £346,591 – NE
As with Everything Everywhere it’s hard to compare The Bob’s Burger Movie with any other animated film as the TV show never had the popularity of other Fox Animation TV shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad being broadcast on E4 and ITV2. So was always likely to struggle to find an audience in the UK.
It was originally dated for July 2020 release but was delayed several times to May 27th due to COVID and Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox.
While 2007’s The Simpsons Movie opened £13,626,853 (no previews) (£20,291,868 inflation inflated) taking £38,312,694 (£57,051,774 inflation inflated).
Similar adult animated films opened far stronger including 2016’s Sausage Party £2,690,156 taking £7,580,034; 1999’s South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut inflation inflated £2,673,228 (£1,496,581 opening) taking £6,367,065 (£11,373,000 inflation inflated) and 2005’s Team America: World Police inflation inflated £2,436,941 (£1,526,329 opening) taking £4,688,765 (£7,486,096 inflation inflated). Opened the same weekend in 1997 as Beavis and Butt-Head Do America in the UK.
What was surprising with The Bob’s Burgers Movie was the BBFC rated the film PG while it received a PG-13 in the US normally the UK will get a higher certificate for films but with animated films they will often get lower certificates with many PG films getting U in the UK. Had The Bob’s Burgers Movie received a 12A film it might have played better as fans might have been put off the film seeing it as a PG as the humour is darker on the TV show.
Sometimes a higher certificate is better for a film as 20th Century Fox released Once Upon A Deadpool a few months after it the original film was released in the UK but both versions were given 15 in the UK while in the US original film was an R and the second version was a PG-13.
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £19,286,684 up 208.9% from last weekend’s £6,243,546
80th biggest top 10 of the last 20 years between 05 October 2018 #1 Venom £8,031,342 (41.08% of top 10) and 01 January 2016 #1 Star Wars: The Force Awakens £10,304,562 (53.48% of top 10) and 175th biggest inflation inflated between 27 October 2017 #1 Thor: Ragnarok £12,375,804 (64.29% of top 10) and 14 July 2017 War for the Planet of the Apes £7,195,773 (37.47% of top 10).
The weekend admissions were 2,564,719 up 208.9% from last week 830,259
Top 3 took ££17,789,645 92.2% of the top 10; Top Gun: Maverick 82.6% (£15,931,497; Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness 7.1% (£1,371,3198); Everything Everywhere All At Once 2.5% (£486,829)
Up 150.7% from 2021 (£7,692,672); The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (£2,708,455); Cruella (£1,453,635); Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (£693,081); #1 The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It£2,708,455 (35.21% of top 10)
2020 n/a cinemas closed
Down 2.7% from 2019; (£19,827,784); Aladdin ( £7,066,773); Rocketman (£5,381,904); The Secret Life of Pets 2 (£3,490,598); #1 Aladdin 1st week £7,066,773 642 screens (35.64% of top 10)
Down 46.2% from 2018: (£13,192,041) Solo: A Star Wars Story (£6,061,231); Show Dogs (£546,405); The Breadwinner (£79,329); McKellen: Playing the Part Live 2018 (£41,110); #1 Solo: A Star Wars Story £6,061,231 1st week 680 screens (45.9% of top 10)
Up 98.4% from 2017: (£9,718,848); Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (£5,238,049); Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (£1,444,092); The Red Turtle (£91,997); The Other Side of Hope (£66,501); #1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge £5,238,049 634 screens 1st week (53.9% of top 10)
Up 117.3% from 2016: (£8,876,599); Alice Through the Looking Glass (£2,229,399); Money Monster (£820,829); Love and Friendship (£263,094); Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants (£97,647); Top Cat Begins (£69,784); Bobby (£1,061); #1 X-Men: Apocalypse £2,543,481 590 screens 2nd week 65% drop (28.6% of top 10)
Up 55.7% from 2015; (£12,383,288); San Andreas (£4,628,394); Man Up (£528,748); Danny Collins (£225,308); The Connection (£82,486); #1 San Andreas £4,628,394 505 screens 1st week (37.3% of top 10)
Up 21.9% from 2014: (£15,825,863); Maleficent (£6,590,071); Edge of Tomorrow (£1,886,096); A Million Ways to Die in the West (£1,240,465); Jimmy’s Hall (£131,703); Heaven is for Real (£7,762); #1 Maleficent £6,590,071 486 screens 1st week (41.6% of top 10)
Up 10.1% from 2013: (£17,517,641); The Hangover Part III (£5,964,619); Epic (£3,190,574); The Moth Diaries (£103,228); Something in the Air (£20,948); #1 The Hangover Part III £5,964,619 474 screens 1st week (34.1% of top 10)
Up 182.6% from 2012 (£6,824,026); Men in Black 3 (£2,935,736); What to Expect When You’re Expecting (£661,617); Moonrise Kingdom (£251,760); Iron Sky (£66,076); #1 Men in Black 3 £2,935,736 1st week 532 screens (43.1% of top 10)
Up 5.8% from 2011 (£18,230,336); The Hangover Part II (£10,409,017); Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (£1,476,720); #1 The Hangover Part II £10,409,017 1st week 469 screens (57.1% of top 10)
Up 41.5% from 2010: (£13,625,923); Sex and the City 2 (£6,142,718); The Tooth Fairy (£844,889); Space Chimps 2 (£434,883); The Losers (£391,938); Rec 2 (£70,367); #1 Sex and the City 2 £6,142,718 1st week 530 screens (45.1% of top 10)
Up 166.8% from 2009; (£7,228,664); Drag Me to Hell (£1,907,731); 12 Rounds (£326,804); Obsessed (£154,344); Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience (£117,060); Fireflies in the Garden (£20,828); #1 Night at the Museum 2 £2,054,769 520 screens 51% drop 2nd week (28.4% of top 10)
Up 17.4% from 2008; (£16,421,392); Sex and the City (£8,767,265); Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (£265,346); Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (£40,380); #1 Sex and the City £8,767,265 460 screens 1st weeks (53.4% of top 10)
Up 30.2% from 2007: (£14,816,587); Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (£11,634,860); Blitz (£266,148); Win Win (£155,463); Fire in Babylon (£107,312); Julia’s Eyes (£49,142); #1 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides £11,634,860 1st week 569 screens (78.5% of top 10)
Up 28.5% from 2006; (£15,005,037); X-Men: The Last Stand (£7,091,820); The Wild (£1,033,153); Curious George (£330,232); Friends with Money (£95,092); Down in the Valley (£39,803); Thief Lord (£38,737); #1 X-Men: The Last Stand £7,091,820 1st week 446 screens (47.2% of top 10)
Up 118.5% from 2005 (£8,828,190); House of Wax (£765,008); The Pacifier (£729,070); Millions (£293,032); It’s All Gone Pete Tong (£261,208); #1 Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith £5,427,091 2nd week 490 screens 62% drop (61.5% of top 10)
Up 66.9% from 2004 (£11,556,263); The Day After Tomorrow (£7,321,633); #1 The Day After Tomorrow £7,321,633 1st 429 screens (63.3% of top 10)
Up 199.1% from 2003 (£6,447,499); Bringing Down the House (£1,133,139); Ripley’s Game (£244,457); #1 The Matrix Reloaded £3,783,905 2nd week 481 screens 69% drop (58.6% of top 10)
Up 100.6% from 2002 (£9,615,592); Not Another Teen Movie (£635,805); Thunderpants (£430,913); Hart’s War (£129,484); #1 Star Wars Ep II – Attack of the Clones £5,955,017 468 screens 2nd week 48% drop (61.9% of top 10)
Next weekend 2020 Cinemas Closed First Lockdown
Next weekend 2021 (£4,771,829); A Quiet Place Part II (£3,567,048); Dream Horse (£209,389); The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (Re: 2020) – Extended Version (£24,652); Land (£14,615); #1 A Quiet Place Part II £3,567,048 (41.26% of top 10)
US Box Office
- Top Gun: Maverick – Paramount Pictures
Opened with $126.7m and $160.5m from 4-day Memorial Day Weekend; received widespread critical acclaim (97% Rotten Tomatoes) and A+ CinemaScore
39th biggest opening weekend (Fri-Sun) between Iron Man 2 and Deadpool 2 (close to Suicide Squad, Deadpool, It and Shrek the Third).
Taking $160.5m Paramount is claiming Top Gun Maverick has overtaken Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End $153m Memorial Day opening but as Obi-Wan said “You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our point of view” as Top Gun Maverick breaking Memorial Day weekend record are due to Thursday Midnights starting at 3 pm and being inflated with Tuesday IMAX fan previews, but It’s impossible to compare Top Gun Maverick Memorial Day opening with a film opening 15 years ago as especially with about 50% of Top Gun Maverick BO from IMAX/PLF is about 150% ticket inflation between the two films.
Took $19.3m from Thursday midnight which also included fan IMAX screenings on Tuesday; had the 27th biggest Thursday previews between the Hunger Games and The Avengers (close to The Batman, Suicide Squad, The Dark Knight and Jurassic World; took 21% from IMAX and 31% from PLF formats.
Took $51.8m from Friday including previews with 40% from IMAX/PLF; 39th biggest Friday between Deadpool 2 and iron Ma 3 (close to The Batman, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, It and Star Wars: The Force Awakens). Took $38m Saturday and $36.7m Sunday.
It was Paramount’s 5th #1 of 2022 after Scream, Jackass Forever, The Lost City and Sonic the Hedgehog, but sadly have little for the rest of the year that’s likely to top the box office, Paws of Fury in July, Secret Headquarters in August, Smile in September with their next major release Babylon opening on platform release on Christmas Day. Paramount have probably their strongest slate of films in 2023 for more than a decade with Transformers: Rise of the Beats, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1, A Quiet Place Day One and Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie.
Currently Paramount have a 21.04% share of the US BO their highest share of the BO for over 27 years overtaking their previous high in 2011 19.33% when they had the biggest share of the BO for the year and were the world’s biggest studio. Paramount had over 10% share of the BO between 2006 and 2011 but between 2012 and 2021 was under 10% and was one of the lowest-performing studios.
So much nonsense has been written about Top Gun Maverick and how Paramount waited it out to release the film, but this has more to do with Tom Cruise’s demands rather than the studio as with two more Mission Impossible opening over the next two years they want to keep Tom Cruise happy.
Audience demographic breakdown 45% over 45, 21% over 55 with male to female 57% and 43%
EntTelligence reported 11.6m had seen Top Gun: Maverick compared with 2m who saw the at its opening weekend of May 16-18, 1986 ($8.1m) and 20.6m for Spider-Man: No Way Home and 14m Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness over their opening weekends.
The difference is the original film had very long legs taking over $3m ($10m+ inflation inflated) for 19 weeks while Top Gun Maverick will likely be less than a quarter of that time
The average ticket price was $12.96 (42%+ than the industry average) and the average ticket price for a Top Gun 2 IMAX/PLF ticket is $16.41 (80%+ than the industry average) but with over 50% of sales being IMAX/PLF/ScreenX and 4DX has a massive impact on the number of people who saw it as an industry will claim !5m+ saw it over the opening weekend but in reality, it was less than 10m.
Interestingly 54% of those seeing Top Gun Maverick saw it before 7 pm; 31% between 7-9 pm and 15% after 9 Pm, this is more expected for a film targeting younger audiences as would expect these films to play stronger after 7 pm.
Had the widest opening ever in the US playing in 4,732 cinemas more than The Lion King (4,725), Spider-Man: No Way Home (4,336) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (4,534) in many of these cinemas were playing in 8+ screens in multiple formats including IMAX/PLF, Dolby Cinema, ScreenX and 4DX. As with Doctor Strange 2 Had 70 showings a day at AMC in Times Square. Must have had about 250,000 screenings over 4 days.
In the US Top Gun Maverick predictably had Tom Cruise’s biggest opening again ahead of 2005’s War of the Worlds opened with $64.8m ($95m inflation inflated) taking $234.3m ($350m inflation inflated) and $603.87m worldwide ($900m inflation inflated).
But there was confusion over if it had the biggest Memorial Day weekend due to how extended weekend box office is calculated as Disney claims Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End took $153m while BoxofficeMojo $139.8m. As similar to the extended openings in the UK studios are adding “preview” box office to its opening as with Top Gun Maverick Paramount added BO from Tuesday IMAX fan screenings to Thursday midnights BO. This makes comparing box office impossible, especially for a film that opened over a decade ago as the ticket inflation of about 33% also has dynamic pricing. With films like Top Gun Maverick 50%+ from IMAX and PLF formats that see average ticket price being more than the double industry average.
The preview box office has artificially inflated UK box office openings for more than 20 years they started similar to the US with one evening Thursday night preview screening with films like Jurassic Park but then extended to full-day previews Sat/Sun for the first Harry Potter film and all-day Sat/Sun previews the weekend before opening for animated films. This often means having the crazy situation of animated films having their “premiere” on the Sunday before opening at the same time it’s playing on the next screen to a paying audience. Remember covering the Ice Age premiere at Odeon High Street Kensington in 2002 with this happening the “premiere” on screen 1 and screen 2 paying audience were also seeing it.
With preview BO being added and dynamic pricing inflating ticket prices films should be reported by admissions rather than box office as it would make for a much more open playing field and that weekend box office should be only Fri-Sun along with a midnight show that is actually at midnight as many of the midnights shows now start about 3 pm so cinemas have 4 midnight shows that are inflating opening.
Of course, this won’t happen so it just means that you have to take opening weekends with a pinch of salt and can’t compare them with any other film that opened over 5 years ago. While hype will bring out audiences in its opening weekend the second weekend is now a far more important weekend as seen with films like Doctor Strange 2 after opening with a huge $187.42m it also drops a huge 67% ($61.75m) in its second weekend and by the fourth weekend is down to $17m down a massive 91% in 4 weeks.
This also shows that studios are right to have 31-day theatrical windows with Doctor Strange 2 expected to e released on Disney+ in 3 weeks on 19th June, while Top Gun: Maverick will be released on VOD on 10th July.
Much has been made about Tom Cruise having his first $100m opening in the US with Top Gun Maverick but while his films were massive events at the time they can no longer compete against the properties, a film like Doctor Strange 2 opens with $187.42m 11 biggest but then drops heavily in its second weekend while a Tom Cruise film opens with about a third as much but has far stronger legs.
Memorial Day weekend used to be the second biggest weekend of the year after Independence Day but over the last 20 years studios have opened their biggest summer films earlier in May so Memorial Day weekend hasn’t had the biggest films of early summer.
It would be great if I’m wrong and Top Gun Maverick becomes Tom Cruise’s first $1bn+ film but it’s more likely to play as a Mission Impossible film taking $850m which would be seen as a massive success to Paramount being their biggest in a decade but not against the other big movies of the year as to quote The Social Network a million dollars isn’t cool anymore, a billion dollars is and with all the industry hype Top Gun Maverick needs now to take $1bn+ or be seen as a disappointment?
Looking back to 1986 did Paramount see Top Gun and Crocodile Dundee be their two biggest films and the two biggest films of the year? Surely it was more Jewel of the Nile, Poltergeist 2, The Golden Child, Cobra, Aliens, The Karate Kid 2 and Howard the Duck?
The problem is the industry has overhyped the film believing that its bigger than it is as sadly it couldn’t ever be included as one of the top 5 releases this year as they are Doctor Strange 2, Thor Love and Thunder, Jurassic World Dominion, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water.
Tom Cruise’s 44 films have taken $4.44bn in the US, $6.29bn internationally and $10.74bn worldwide; he had huge success in the 80s and 90s and is the last action hero outlasting Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger along with Nicolas Cage and Harrison Ford (Harrison Ford may have returned in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and will return in Indiana Jones 5 but he hasn’t had the continued success in action films as Tom Cruise has had over the last 25 years due to Mission Impossible films. But as his biggest hits were in the 80s and 90s Top Gun, Rain Man, A Few Good Men, the Firm, and Interview With the Vampire hasn’t had a $1bn film globally, that said inflation inflated both Top Gun and Rain Man would be $1bn+ hits.
While of course there wouldn’t have been Top Gun Maverick without Tom Cruise but without Jim Gianopulos, Jerry Bruckheimer and Skydance it wouldn’t have been made, but Jim Gianopulos left in September before release, and rumours in December Paramount aren’t extending Jerry Bruckheimer’s production deal ended in December and Skydance after 10 years at Paramount have moved to Apple. This highlights why the studio has struggled over the last decade as did the same with Blumhouse, Dreamworks and Marvel. As Paramount have one of their strongest slates next year than they have had in over a decade and have MI8 in June 2024 but beyond that, it feels like that could be the last big tentpole for the studio as they move towards films from labels Nick Movies and MTV Movies … this is highlighted by Paramount having a strong Jan-May but then release a couple of small films before Babylon Christmas Day (has already very strong buzz).
The problem is marketing and hype are two different things but the industry believes they are the same, while marketing is a commercial solicitation designed to sell some commodity, service or similar, the hype is promotion or propaganda; especially, exaggerated claims. The problem is audiences see through the hype far quicker.
This is why there are many members of the $100m loser club as hype gets people through the door over the opening weekend but if it doesn’t live up to that hype which few films do then it drops heavily in the second weekend… with a film like Top Gun Maverick its 5-star reviews are three stars for the film 2 stars for the hype as is the case with films like The Force Awakens, Spectre, Skyfall and No Time To Die as critics get caught up in the hype when they see these films and then review them immediately after seeing them and reactions are far more positive than if they waited a few weeks. This is why premiere reaction is always far more positive than reviews a few weeks later as seen with Ghostbuster Afterlife generating rave reviews after sneak preview in October but reviews a few weeks later were far more mixed.
Opened with $124m from 62 territories playing in over 29,000 cinemas worldwide; with the UK $19.4m; France $11.7m; Australia $10.7m; Japan $9.7m; Germany $6.5m; Brazil $5.3m; It’s Paramount Pictures second-biggest international opening after Transformers Age of Extinction (due to $92m opening in China).
Took $10.4m from 350 IMAX screens internationally 8.4% having the biggest IMAX opening in 17 territories including the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Argentina, Sweden and Norway.
- The Bob’s Burgers Movie – 20th Century Studios/Disney
Opened with $12.41m; received positive reviews (86% Rotten Tomatoes) and A CinemaScore
Took $1.5m from Thursday previews; Sing 2 took $1.6m; Encanto $1.5m and The Bad Guys $1.2m
The penultimate film 20th Century Fox was put into production before the studio was acquired by Disney in 2019 the other being Avatar 2 (and Avatar 3-5). The film 20th Century Studios have been made since have all been made for streaming with the only theatrical made film Amsterdam David O Russell’s ensemble opening November made by New Regency.
Recent grown-up animated films include
2007’s The Simpsons Movie opened $74.03m taking $183.13m and $536.41m but the Bob’s Burger Movie was never going to repeat its success as the TV animated series wasn’t as popular.
Comparisons include
2016’s Sausage Party $34.26m taking $97.68m and $140.7m worldwide;
1999’s South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut opened $11.33m taking $52.03m and $83.13m worldwide;
2005’s Team America: World Police opened $12.12m taking $32.78m and $50.82m worldwide
1996’s Beavis and Butt-Head Do America opened $20.11m taking $63.11m
Opened with 700k from 8 territories
- Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness – Disney
Dropped 50% in its fourth weekend taking $16.06m and $370.44m
47th biggest film between The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Spider-Man 2; 131st biggest inflation inflated Mission: Impossible and Guardians of the Galaxy; 25th biggest Disney film between Finding Nemo and The Jungle Book; 17th biggest comic-book movie between Spider-Man 2 and The Batman.
While Doctor Strange 2 BO is no concern for either Marvel or Disney it is for cinemas as exhibitors need films to play for more than a few weeks or it just proves studios are right to reduce the theatrical window to 31 days. As Doctor Strange 2 then took $15m in its 4th weekend (days 28-30) will be over 90% of its BO.
28 MCU films have taken $10.24bn in the US and $10.74bn inflation inflated; average US BO is $363m and $26.53bn worldwide
Took $22.9m from 49 territories $502m and $873.1m worldwide; Korea $48.3m; UK $46.5m; Mexico $38.5m; Brazil $31.3m; Australia $24.7m; overtaken the global BO of Doctor Strange at $678m and The Batman at $768.4m both always expected to do and take $925m.
73rd biggest film worldwide between Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice; 17th biggest comic-book movie between Spider-Man: Homecoming and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (close to Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man 3 and Deadpool 2); 30th biggest Disney film between Finding Nemo and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.
- Downton Abbey: A New Era – Focus Features
Dropped 64% in its second weekend taking $5.78m and $28.36m
2019’s Downton Abbey dropped 53.8% taking $14.34m and $58.34 taking $96.85m and $192.19m worldwide
2001’s Gosford Park took $41.3m and $87.75m worldwide
Took $2.2m internationally from 53 territories and $40.5m and $68m worldwide
- Everything Everywhere All at Once – A24
Down 21% in its tenth weekend taking $2.46m and $56.77m
It’s A24’s biggest film in the US ahead of Uncut Gems $50.02m and Lady Bird $48.95m
1,544th biggest film in the US between Midway and Midnight in Paris; 2,446th inflation inflated between Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Insidious Chapter 3.
Since opening on a platform at the end of March taking $501,305 from 10 screens and then $1.07m from 38 screens at the second weekend it then expanded into 1,250 screens at the third weekend and 2,220 at the fourth weekend. Often films will expand far too quickly and then lose screens but word of mouth has kept audiences returning.
The film has overtaken the box office of many award contenders from last year including Nightmare Alley, West Side Story and Licorice Pizza and will shortly overtake the box office of House of Gucci.
UK Box Office Top 10
UK Box Office Previews
As always when a big film opens the industry gets caught up with the size of Its opening weekend but far more important is it’s the second and third weekend. Few films get a free second weekend without any major releases opening but Top Gun Maverick does before summer movies open back-to-back weekly until the start of August.
Often Tom Cruise films hold strongly in their second weekends as was the case with Edge of Tomorrow and American Made but as Top Gun took £4.6 from previews a second weekend BO of between £6.5,m-£8m would be a second-weekend drop of between 50%-60% but without previews would be a drop between 30%-40% showing again how after previews artificially inflate openings they the films drop much heavier than they would normally.
Top Gun Maverick is very similar to Star Wars The Force Awakens as it is a remake of the original film the opening credit scene is the same but on a different aircraft carrier and repeats scenes straight from the first film as The Force Awakens does, so do wonder as with The Force Awakens when the bubble will burst and audiences realise this. With The Force Awakens, it was after it had taken $2bn worldwide but with other legacy sequels, audiences realise this far sooner.
Of course, this is what sequels do they repeat the best bits from the original film and put them in a slightly different location and people enjoy it as they enjoyed the first one, but with such a long gap with these sequels you do expect more than that and not repeat the same 30 years later the son/daughter have similar adventures of what their parents did but as when Marty went Back to the Future and mixed with his parents who were his age this has been happening for a long time. But with The Force Awakens, it was introducing Star Wars to a whole new generation whilst also attracting fans of the original films for a film like Top Gun Maverick its key audience will be those who grew up with the original film.
You can give the same reasons why audiences are attracted to films like Top Gun Maverick, Star Wars The Force Awakens and Jurassic World to the speech in Field of Dreams to these films “Ray, people will come Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won’t mind if you look around, you’ll say. It’s only $20 per person. They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they’ll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along with one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters.”
Top Gun’s third weekend will be key as with Jurassic World Dominion opening it will lose IMAX/PLF screens which take a large percentage of BO as people want to see films like Top Gun Maverick on the biggest screen possible, saying I am amazed that people opt to see Top Gun Maverick in the Odeon Mezzanine screens rather than the Vue West End which is far cheaper and with a screen bigger than many people’s home TVs.
The new releases Men and Dash Cam are unlikely to find audiences with Sony Pictures Bollywood film Major likely to be the highest new entry.
Opening next week
- Jurassic World: Dominion – Universal Pictures
The final part of the Jurassic World trilogy (for now) and sequel to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and the sixth instalment of the Jurassic Park franchise starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, BD Wong, Campbell Scott and directed by Colin Trevorrow.
It was originally due for release in June 2021 but was delayed a year due to COVID and had a world premiere in Mexico City on May 23rd; opens in South Korea and Mexico on June 1st ahead of the rest of the world on June 10th and is the first major release to open same day in China since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in December 2019.
As with trailers for Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom the trailers for Jurassic World: Dominion is misleading hinting at events that don’t occur as they look in the trailers.
At 2hrs 26mins it’s the longest film in the Jurassic Park film series
The film has a 31-day theatrical window so will be released on VOD on Monday 11th July and then will be available on Amazon Prime in October
Early reactions have said it’s much better than Fallen Kingdom but not as good as Jurassic World which was a Jurassic Park remake with a predictable plot but with more action than all of the other films.
Sam Neil said audiences would no longer accept the slow-burn pacing in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park which takes 45 minutes before seeing the T-Rex but Jurassic World: Dominion has a dinosaur action scene from the start. But Jurassic Park needed time to set up the story while audiences seeing Jurassic World films are unlikely to have not seen the first film. While despite taking 45 minutes until the T-Rex appears it is still 20 minutes shorter film and far more watchable on repeat, as the problem with films that don’t have a long set-up at the start is they get boring very quickly as Steven Spielberg knows less is more which is what makes his films so rewatchable.
A four-minute preview was attached to F9 in June 2021and released online in November it was a prologue set 65 million years ago setting up a rivalry between two dinosaurs in the present-day showing dinosaurs have very long memories.
A TV spot was shown during the Winter Olympics and the Superbowl in February along with its first trailer receiving 86 million views within 24 hours a second trailer was released on April 28th
Its tracking to open in the US between $175m-$215m similar to 2015’s Jurassic World $208.8m and 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opened 29% with $148.02m partly due to opening internationally early due to the World Cup.
2015’s Jurassic World opened with £19,350,727 (including £2,514,284 13% previews) taking £64,322,933
2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opened 26% less with £14,334,894 (including £3.65m 25.4% previews) taking £41,573,492
But Jurassic World: Dominion surprisingly doesn’t have previews even though it opens in many countries internationally on June 8th maybe because Top Gun Maverick holding IMAX screens until June 9th.
