‘Jurassic World 3’ crosses $800 million as ‘Lightyear’ continues to tumble

In box office news that isn’t about Minions: The Rise of Gru Where Top Gun: MaverickWarner Bros. Discovery’s Elvis held over the holidays against brutal competition. Baz Luhrmann’s $85 million rock biopic, starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, grossed another $19 million (-39%) during the Friday-Sunday leg of a likely 22-hour holiday haul .5 million from Friday to Monday. This will give Elvis a cumulative $71 million over 11 days, positioning him for a domestic finish mostly tied to Dunes ($108 million).

It grossed an additional $15.7 million overseas (-28%) for a new worldwide cume of $113.5 million, which puts the film in place (give or take huge escapes in Latin America or in South Korea the week of July 15) for an overall finish of around $190 million. However, given the reviews, buzz, and lack of (non-horrifying) biggies for adults by High-speed train August 5th I would expect a $200+ million finish, roughly in line with Rocketman in the summer of 2019.

Jurassic World Dominion earned $15.65 million (-41%) over weekend four for a 24-day domestic total of $331 million / 25-day $336 million. Colin Trevorrow and Emily Carmichael’s $185 million Dino Threequel grossed $492.7 million overseas for a new worldwide runup of $824.5 million. It might not hit $1 billion (it will only gross around $130 million in China compared to $227 million and $267 million for the previous two jurassic world films), but Amblin will be content to quintuple the budget solely from theatrical receipts.

by Blumhouse The black phone earned $12.3 million (-48%) on the Friday-Sunday period and $14.6 million on the holiday. That gives Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill’s $19 million chiller $50 million domestic and $75 million worldwide. Dream works’ The villains has $96 million domestic and $244.5 million global on an $80 million budget. Universal has three films in the top five and (with Focus Features’ Downton Abbey: A New Era) accounts for 83% of the total weekend box office.

Pixar Light year earned $6.57 million (-64%) for a paltry 17-day total of $105.4 million. It’s less than Minions 2$108.5 million on Friday-Sunday opening weekend. The $200 million film grossed $191 million worldwide for a likely less than $240 million worldwide finish. Again, I would say the culprit was sending the best and most interesting Pixar movies (Soul, Luca and turn red) to Disney+ while saving relatively cynical IP operation/money (despite quality) for theaters only to watch it pull a Solo: A Star Wars Story.

With the exception of MCU movies, Walt Disney is the only major studio that has yet to recover. The few seemingly infallible pre-Covid hits that have stumbled over the past two years have mostly been (Raya and the last dragon, Jungle Cruise, Encanto and Light year) The big names in Disney. Now the MCU movies (Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) could well total around $3 billion worldwide. Moreover, they have Avatar: The Way of the Water in December.

Still, it’s depressing how the rush for Disney+ subscriptions has conditioned families to watch Walt Disney’s tentpoles on Disney+ (which we’ve known for Raya and the last dragon skyrocketed once it became free on the service). We’ll see if Walt Disney Animation strange world may turn around over Thanksgiving weekend. Otherwise, as Minions 2 is aiming for $1 billion worldwide, it will be hard not to argue that the commercial struggles with Disney animated films aren’t entirely about Disney.