Lightyear Loses To Jurassic World At The Box Office, Top Gun Continues To Thrive
It was supposed to be a very big weekend at the box office for Disney. After more than two years, Pixar was returning to theaters with "Lightyear," a "Toy Story" spin-off about the movie that inspired the toy Buzz Lightyear, for Father's Day weekend. After sending acclaimed originals "Soul," "Luca," and "Turning Red" straight to Disney+, the franchise play was seen as the way to welcome Pixar back where it belongs. Unfortunately, the film underperformed dramatically — so much so that "Jurassic World Dominion" managed to sneak in with a surprise upset win to top the charts for a second week. Meanwhile, "Top Gun: Maverick" wasn't far behind as Tom Cruise's latest continues to look like it's going to be the biggest movie of 2022. Let's take a look at the numbers, shall we?
Jurassic World Dominion repeats atop the charts
It really doesn't matter what critics think because "Jurassic World Dominion" is an unquestioned hit, having topped the charts in its first two weeks of release despite some stiff competition. According to Box Office Mojo, director Colin Trevorrow's finale to this current trilogy earned $58.6 million in its second weekend to take the top spot away from "Lightyear," which had been projected to take the crown. It now sits at $249.7 million domestic and $372.3 million from overseas markets for a very solid $622.1 million total. It's kind of playing like "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" ($1.07 billion) did compared to "The Last Jedi" ($1.33 billion) and "The Force Awakens" ($2.06 billion), as "Fallen Kingdom" ($1.31 billion) and "Jurassic World" ($1.67 billion) are going to end up as bigger earners in the end.
Still, Universal Pictures will likely get to add another billion-dollar film to its roster, and "Dominion" has cemented this franchise as somewhat critic-proof — very much like happened with "Venom" and "Venom: Let There Be Carnage." So even though this trilogy is over, expect to see more "Jurassic" films in the future, because one thing is certain: This money train isn't going to stop.
Lightyear disappoints, leaving Pixar's future on uncertain ground
Pixar was one of the most reliable brands in Disney's healthy stable of reliable brands, and it's easy to see why they thought "Lightyear" was a logical fit for theaters, given the film's attachment to "Toy Story." Unfortunately, the audience's appetite for this just wasn't there, as evidenced by its $51 million opening weekend, which fell well short of the $70 to $80 million projections heading into the weekend. To make matters worse, it also opened soft internationally with $34.6 million, giving it an $85.6 million total. That is brutal math for a $200 million blockbuster. Then again, Disney was happy to send three big-budget animated features in a row to Disney+ free of charge to subscribers, so it's hard to know what the folks in charge over there are thinking right now.
It isn't going to get any easier this weekend, as a pair of new in-demand films in the form of "Elvis" and "The Black Phone" roll into town. Given how well "Top Gun" is holding and that "Jurassic World" still has some steam, it's going to be tough sledding for "Lightyear." The good news is that it's kind of the only big, new family-friendly film of the bunch, which means it could have some legs. Still, it's not going to do what a $200 million film needs to do, and that makes one wonder what Disney is going to do with Pixar in the future.
Top Gun: Maverick continues to defy the odds
Paramount Pictures is probably continuing to pop champagne today as "Top Gun: Maverick" dropped a mere 15.1% in its fourth weekend, taking in another $44 million, which was good enough for the number three spot. No doubt the movie continues to benefit from great word of mouth, but it surely benefited from the Father's Day weekend crowd as this is the dad movie to rule all dad movies. It also ranks as one of the best fourth weekend totals ever, just behind James Cameron's "Avatar" ($50.3 million).
The sequel to the 1980s classic, which now ranks as Tom Cruise's highest-grossing movie ever, currently sits at a cool $466.1 million domestic to go with $419 million internationally. That gives it a tremendous $885.1 million total and all but assures it is going to soar past $1 billion, even without a release in China. That is impressive stuff, and if I were a betting man, I would wager that Paramount is going to do just about everything in its power to make "Top Gun 3" happen — and they aren't going to wait more than 30 years to get it done, either.
And the rest...
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" represents a steep drop off in the number four spot, with Marvel's latest taking in $4.2 million in its seventh weekend. It's running out of steam, but should at least hit $950 million before it's totally done (even though it arrives on Disney+ this week). Rounding out the top five was "The Bob's Burgers Movie" with $1.1 million, again illustrating how front-loaded this weekend's top three were. The movie based on the TV show has truly not done particularly well, sitting at $31.8 million worldwide. Perhaps it will find an audience on streaming.
In milestone news elsewhere on the charts, "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" pulled in a mere $228,000, but that was still enough to put it at number nine this weekend. The key thing here is that Paramount's video game adaptation is now $222,000 away from crossing the $400 million mark worldwide, which it should earn in the coming days. That should give the studio a nice little talking point during its next earnings call, especially since the film has been doing very well on streaming over the past several weeks as well. It's a win all around.
The only other major point to make this weekend is that the bottom seven films in the top ten made less than $9 million combined, which is a brutal figure no matter how one chooses to slice it. The positive, though, is that several movies managed to make damn good money, which is a positive sign that there is room for more, and moviegoer appetites are there to satiate. It will be very interesting to see how things shake out this weekend with both "Elvis" and "The Black Phone" seemingly going for very different crowds.