Top Gun is resurgent, but Bullet Train carries the weekend box office right into hell

Bullet Train is on top, but Top Gun: Maverick is still the only real story

By Sam Barsanti  |  August 14, 2022 | 7:50pm
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Top Gun is resurgent, but Bullet Train carries the weekend box office right into hell
Bullet Train (Sony Pictures), Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount) Photo: The A.V. Club

We’ve got to give a big “woof” to this weekend’s box office, and not because DC League Of Super-Pets is hanging on in second place. Well, that’s part of it, but the real reason is that the total gross is not only continuing the downward trend of the last few weeks, but things have now fallen to a fraction of where they were a month ago—when Thor and the Minions were still doing good business. So what does this mean? Are movie theaters truly dead and the Spider-Man: No Way Home bump that they got at the beginning of the year was just a fluke? As experts, we can comfortably say: Yes. At this time next year, all movie theaters will be replaced by Spirit Halloween stores, as is the fate of every empty building.

Or maybe it’s the middle of summer and people are excited to get back into the world, now that the CDC has announced that COVID was just a dream? Or maybe there’s just no new hot picture in theaters, and most people have already seen the ones that have now been playing for over a month? Anyway, not to take anything away from Bullet Train, but it’s still on top. It made $13 million in its second week, sitting at nearly $55 million total.

After that is Super-Pets, which squeaked (like a super mouse) into second with $7 million, just $20,000 over third place’s Top Gun: Maverick—which shot up the charts this week with a one percent increase from last week. It’s been in theaters for 12 weeks and it’s now going back up! It has made over $670 million, which is significantly higher than anything else this year, and it will soon outgross Avengers: Infinity War if it maintains the pace it’s had this summer. That movie had Avengers in it! It has one of the most iconic endings in recent movie history! And Maverick will soon be bigger than it was!

Anyway, some other movies made money this weekend, but not a whole lot of it. Thor: Love And Thunder kept its position in fourth (Thorth) place, followed by Nope, Minions: The Rise Of Gru, Where The Crawdads Sing (in seventh for a while now), and Bodies Bodies Bodies (which jumped over a thousand percent, but it also opened in only a few theaters last week). Wrapping things up are Elvis and Fall, the latter being the only newcomer in the top 10.

The full top 10 list from Box Office Mojo is below.

  • Bullet Train
  • DC League Of Super-Pets
  • Top Gun: Maverick
  • Thor: Love And Thunder
  • Nope
  • Minions: The Rise Of Gru
  • Where The Crawdads Sing
  • Bodies Bodies Bodies
  • Elvis
  • Fall

 
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