Good Morning! Hopefully everyone had a great Memorial Day!

The box office felt the need for speed this past holiday weekend soaring to a huge $176.4M weekend and $218M after the holiday weekend. The Q2 box office is at $1.32B.

After 36 years, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell returned to the danger zone bringing in a massive $126.7M and $156M after the holiday weekend, higher than many estimates. Top Gun: Maverick had a per-screen average of $26,187 at 4,735 theaters nationwide. Maverick’s audience was also 45% ages 35 and the 18-34 age group represented 37% of that. Tom Cruise flew to new heights by becoming a trained pilot for this role and performing his own stunts. Click here to read about how they prepared the cast for the film. Tom Cruise held critics and moviegoers alike at the edge of their seats with a 96% fresh score and 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

It is important to note that Screenvision’s estimates for the original release of Top Gun: Maverick in 2019 was $20M. As the release date for Maverick moved back, anticipation grew with estimates swelling to $50M for a 2020 opening date, then $75M for a summer 2021 opening. By early this year, estimates rose to $80M, and finally $100M for the huge Memorial Day Weekend release. Top Gun exceeded expectations and soared to new heights becoming the highest grossing Memorial Day Weekend opening of all time, the widest PG-13 release of all time, and the biggest opening weekend of Tom Cruise’s career.

The multiverse is not quite finished yet as Doctor Strange added another $15.9M to its total. Now surpassing The Batman, the Doctor Strange sequel became the highest grossing film of 2022 so far now sitting at a gross total of $374.8M.

The Bob’s Burgers Movie came to theaters for the first time during its 13-season run and brought in $12.4M over the weekend and totaled $15M after the holiday. The animated comedy has critics and audiences laughing all weekend with an 86% fresh score and 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Downton Abbey: A New Era tallied $5.7M in its second weekend in theaters and a total of $7.2M after the holiday. Its gross total now comes to $29.7M.

Animated film The Bad Guys closes out the top five of Memorial Day Weekend. The co-viewing experience remains a staple in the box office with The Bad Guys bringing in an additional $4.3M and $5.5M after the holiday making its total $82.3M after six weeks in theaters.

Next weekend brings Watcher, a film about an actress named Julia (Maika Monroe) who moves to a new town with her boyfriend (Karl Glusman) when a serial killer stalks the city she lived in. In her new home, she realizes the terror is not quite over. 

In two weeks, Jurassic World: Dominion will hit theaters and the box office is set for another massive weekend with an estimated opening of $150M. The original cast of the Jurassic Park returns for the franchise’s final saga.

Source: Box Office Mojo, Box Office Pro, New York Post