Box Office: Jurassic World: Dominion continues to rule as Lightyear falls short of expectations

There was quite an upset at the box office this weekend. If you read our Box Office Predictions article a few days ago, you know Pixar’s Toy Story spin-off Lightyear was expected to come out on top with a haul somewhere in the range of $80 million. But that wasn’t the case. Lightyear, which tells the story of the man the Buzz Lightyear toy from the Toy Story movies was based on, fell short of expectations, pulling in an estimated $51 million. That allowed Jurassic World: Dominion to remain at #1 for its second weekend, as it made around $58.66 million.

Deadline points out that Lightyear‘s opening is in the range of what the average Pixar original makes; Coco opened with $51 million, Ratatouille with $47 million. But given the film’s connection to Toy Story, it was expected to do better than this. Now we’re left to wonder why more movie-goers didn’t show up for it. The lack of the usual Toy Story ensemble cast? The fact that human Lightyear is voiced by Chris Evans instead of Tim Allen, who provides the voice of the toy version of the character? Are families just waiting to watch the movie at home on Disney+? Audience polls conducted by PostTrax do indicate that Lightyear didn’t appeal to young girls as much as Toy Story movies tend to, so that might play a factor as well.

Whatever the case, Lightyear‘s loss is Jurassic World: Dominion‘s gain. The Jurassic sequel was expected to make around $60 million this weekend, and it has done just that.

At #3 is Top Gun: Maverick, performing better than its predicted $35 million. The long-awaited Top Gun sequel is proving to be a big draw for Father’s Day weekend audiences and is estimated to earn $44 million this weekend. That’s just a 15% drop from last weekend and the third-best fourth weekend ever for a movie, after American Sniper ($89.1 million) and Avatar ($50.1 million). Top Gun: Maverick has made more than $800 million at the global box office and has officially become the highest-grossing film in Tom Cruise’s career.

There’s a steep drop between third and fourth place. At #4, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness made $4.2 million. This is the last weekend the film will only be available to watch on the big screen, as it’s heading to Disney+ on June 22nd. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness crossed $400 million at the domestic box office this week, becoming the tenth Disney / Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to do so, following Avengers: Endgame ($858.3 million), Spider-Man: No Way Home ($804.7 million), Black Panther ($700.4 million), Avengers: Infinity War ($678.8 million), The Avengers ($623.3 million), Avengers: Age of Ultron ($459 million), Captain Marvel ($426.8 million), Iron Man 3 ($409 million), and Captain America: Civil War ($408 million).

Rounding out the top 5 was The Bob’s Burgers Movie with $1.1 million. The Bad Guys; Everything, Everywhere All at Once; Downton Abbey: A New Era; and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 keep hanging out in the top 10, each of them now several weeks into their theatrical runs. And at #10 we have the opening weekend debut of the Focus Features comedy Brian and Charles. Released at just 279 locations in 100 markets, Brian and Charles made $198,000. A $711 per screen average.

Given that Monday is Juneteenth, a federal holiday, this is a four-day holiday weekend and each of these movies will have a larger haul by the time it’s over. But in regards to ranking in the top 10, all that’s expected to change is that Everything, Everywhere All at Once might pull ahead of The Bad Guys to take the #6 spot.

What are your thoughts on this weekend’s box office results? Why do you think Lightyear fell short? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.