Box Office: Bullet Train leads the slowest weekend in months

As expected, Brad Pitt’s action extravaganza, Bullet Train, was easily able to take the top spot at the box office this weekend, grossing $13.4 million, posting a not-bad decline of 55% from its opening weekend. Currently, the movie sits at $54.4 million domestically, with box office pundits predicting the film could leg out to a $100 million gross – which would be a good result for this $85 million flick before it hits VOD/streaming.

Of course, the big news this weekend was how weak the box office was in general after a generally solid summer. Deadline is reporting that the total box office for the weekend was $66.8 million, which is the weakest result since Downton Abbey: A New Era topped the box office back in May. Notably, that was just before Top Gun: Maverick opened and reinvigorated the box office in a big way. That movie, which is steadily climbing the list of the top grossing movies ever, was up 2% from last weekend thanks to a “Fan Appreciation” re-release. It came in third place with $7.15 million for a muscular $673.8 million total. Will it cross $700 million domestically? Only time will tell.

Top Gun: Maverick was narrowly beaten by DC League of Super-Pets, which grossed $7.17 million for a $58.3 million total. Coming in 4th place is Thor: Love and Thunder, for an estimated three-day gross of $325 million. It looks like it will fall short of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ $411 million total. Coming in 5th is Jordan Peele’s Nope, grossing $5.3 million, for a robust $107 million total. While divisive, Peele’s movie has proven to have serious legs. While it will be the lowest grossing of his three movies, it’s worth noting that each has at least crossed $100 million domestically, so his following is still buying tickets in a big way.

Meanwhile, Minions: The Rise of Gru continues to rake in cash, with Comscore estimating a $4.9 million weekend for a total of $343 million. Where the Crawdads Sing is just behind it with $4 million for a solid $72 million total. New releases Bodies Bodies Bodies and Fall didn’t make much of an impact, with Bodies coming in 8th with a $3.2 million total, although it’s only open on 1275 screens. Fall is in 10th place with $2.5 million – not a great result for this YA-targeted thriller. In between them was WB’s Elvis, which made $2.585 million for a grand total of $141.290 million, a solid number for an adult-skewing movie these days.

In other news, Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was re-released on IMAX screens this weekend for its 40th anniversary. It’s the first of two planned Spielberg re-releases (with Jaws coming in September), but in the end it only grossed about $1.07 million, which The Numbers reports adds up to a $2,751 average on 389 screens. That’s actually the second highest average of the weekend after Bullet Train.

Sadly, the box office doldrums seem likely to continue until at least October, with no sure-fire hits opening until Halloween Ends on October 14th. Is there anything you’re looking forward to seeing? Let us know in the comments!