by Nathaniel R
Top Gun Maverick returned to the #1 position (more on that in a bit) and rereleases of two of the biggest hits of all time, Jaws (1975) and Spider-Man No Way Home (2020) both did well again over the quiet Labor Day Weekend (which is rarely a big movie weekend)...
| Holiday Weekend Box Office September 2nd-5th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it |
|
| WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS) | LIMITED / PLATFORM |
 TOP GUN MAVERICK |
 ORPHAN: FIRST KILL |
| 1 ★ TOP GUN MAVERICK $7.9 (cum. $701.2) |
1 ★ ORPHAN FIRST KILL $922k (cum. $4.6) |
| 2 BULLET TRAIN $7.5 (cum. $88) |
2 MARCEL THE SHELL... $150k cum. $6) |
| 3 DC LEAGUE OF SUPER PETS $6.7 (cum. $82.1) |
3 EMILY THE CRIMINAL $123k (cum. $1.9) |
| 4 🔺★ SPIDER-MAN NO WAY HOME (re-release) $6.5 *NEW* |
4 HALLELUJAH: LEONARD COHEN (DOC) $54k (cum. $941k) |
| 5 THE INVITATION $6.1 (cum. $15.1) |
5 ★ EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE $46k (cum. $69.8) |
| 6 BEAST $5 (cum. $26.8) |
6 EMERGENCY DECLARATION (South korea) $26k (cum. $374K) |
 JAWS (re-release) |
 A LOVE SONG |
| 7 MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU $4.5 (cum. $360.3) | 7 ALIENOID (South Korea) $24k (cum. $140k) |
|
8 THOR: LOVE & THUNDER $3.3 (cum. $340.8) |
8 ★ A LOVE SONG $15k (cum. $245K) |
| 9 🔺★ JAWS (rerelease) $3.3 *NEW* |
9 ★ FIRE OF LOVE (Doc) $13k (cum. $1.0) |
| 10 WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING $2.78 (cum. $85.7) |
10 ★ THREE MINUTES A LENGTHENING (Doc) $11k (cum. $75k) |
| 11 DRAGON BALL SUPER HERO $2.7 (cum. $85.734.9) |
11 ★ CARNAL KNOWLEDGE (rerelease) $10k *NEW* |
| 12 ★ NOPE $2.2 (cum. $120.7) |
12 ★ APOCALYPSE NOW (rerelease) $9k (cum. $52k) |
| 13 ★ 3000 THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING $2.1 (cum. $6.4) |
13 🔺 LOVING HIGHSMITH $6k *NEW* |
 HONK FOR JESUS SAVE YOUR SOUL |
 1982 |
|
14 🔺 HONK FOR JESUS SAVE YOUR SOUL $1.7 *NEW* |
14 🔺 BURIAL *5k *NEW* |
|
15 ★ ELVIS $1.4 (cum. $149.5) |
15 ★ MY OLD SCHOOL (Doc) $4k (cum. $92k) |
|
16 🔺 GIGI & NATE $1.2 *NEW* |
16 FACING NOLAN (Doc) $3k (cum. $403k) |
|
17 ★ BREAKING $853k (cum. $2.2) |
17 FIRE/BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE (France) $3k (cum. $197k) |
|
18 BODIES BODIES BODIES $606k (cum. $10.8) That's all the movies still in wide release. So many of them lingering because there's nothing to replace them with! |
18 ★ 1982 (Lebanon) $2k (cum. $28k) We're fairly sure several arthouse theaters are getting quite spotty in their reporting since some titles that were new just last week do not appear and the numbers vary from different box office sites. |
In the absence of new films for general moviegoers -- oddly at just the moment we're hearing about so many exciting new films on the festival circuit -- Top Gun Maverick has achieved what has been impossible for decades. It is now the #1 box office attraction AGAIN in its 15th week in theaters. This sort of continual dip and return to the top has not been a semi regular occurance since, like, the the 1980s when movies might play for months on end if they were popular and people didn't think "I'll wait for streaming" or even "I'll wait for the DVD" because the former didn't exist and the latter had long windows still. But Top Gun Maverick has had incredible good fortune by way of perfect timing in that it's a crowd pleaser arriving just as the audience was eager to get back and just as Hollywood appeared to have given up on luring crowds to the theaters. It's had an incredible run but the dearth of competition has definitely helped make that incredible run possible.
NEXT WEEKEND
With Barbarian, House of Darkness, Medieval, and Speak No Evil in theaters and Athena and End of the Road coming from Netflix, Hollywood is betting ONLY on violence/thrills next Friday to kick off fall movie season. It's sometimes amusing for us to think about getting that many of any other type of films in one weekend. (Can you imagine a weekend with like six romantic movies opening against each other. Or even six superhero pictures opening at the same time?) The only new films that count as counterprogramming next weekend are the Bollywood superhero film Brahmastra Part One at select theaters and the Emma Roberts romcom About Fate on VOD. (In short, expect Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and various animated creatures to stay near the top for another week.
There's much more variety in terms of kinds of movies and scale of movies coming in late September / early October but it's bleak for a bit still!
What did you see this holiday weekend?