REGINA — We have hit the Labour Day weekend, which means we have once again hit the end of yet another summer blockbuster movie season.
While it’s not quite officially in the books, as we still have the Labour Day numbers to tally, it’s pretty clear what the trends are for the big winners at the movie box office.
What’s notable about 2022 is that it seems like we are officially back to normal after two full summers of COVID-19 disruptions of various sorts. It’s good to finally have a summer packed with big-name movies and big-name stars, just like we were used to.
I am also looking at the summer winners and losers to see if there are any takeaways for Hollywood from the response, and I’ve determined there’s quite a few good lessons to be learned — and money to be made in the future if you simply give the movie fans what they want to see.
With that, it’s time to declare our winners. Here is the rundown of the top releases at the domestic box office as of Sept. 1, courtesy the numbers posted at Box Office Mojo:
- Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount), $692,369,879, release date May 27.
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Disney), $411,331,607, release date May 6
- Jurassic World Dominion (Universal), $374,960,845, release date June 10
- Minions: The Rise of Gru (Universal), $355,329,490, release date July 1
- Thor: Love and Thunder (Disney), $337,077,992, release date July 8.
As you can tell from the numbers, Top Gun: Maverick was the clear winner at the summer box office, and by a dominating margin as well. This was the follow up to the massive hit movie from the 1980s that starred Tom Cruise, with Cruise back in the title role.
What stood out about this movie was that it was so different from what we have come to expect at the box office over the last number of years. Normally we would expect the top of the charts to feature some superhero movie usually from Marvel, or a science fiction movie from the Star Wars franchise, or perhaps a CGI movie from the likes of Disney-PIXAR.
True, we had a couple of couple of Marvel movies in the top five in Doctor Strange and Thor, and an animated CGI with Minions. But this year, the top motion picture was an action adventure with plenty of planes flying and lots of excitement. It was a pure popcorn movie like the ones we had come to expect in the past.
Such as the ‘80s, perhaps? Maybe even the ‘90s. In a lot of ways, Top Gun: Maverick seems like a throwback to a time when movies were about pure entertainment. And it just seems like the public is ready for a change from superhero or sci-fi movies.
There’s also a lot of talk about how people down in the ‘States are fed up with politics being constantly rammed down their throats in their entertainment, whether it’s in the movies or in late night TV (Stephen Colbert, I’m looking at you), or elsewhere.
They’re pointing to this Top Gun movie and they’re saying: finally, a movie for people in the heartland, the people in the flyover ‘States. Here’s a movie where people can feel good and patriotic about America again. Heck, those patriotic American folks like movies, too. Might as well make something for them.
But it wasn’t just the Americans feeling good about Top Gun: Maverick. It also won the summer globally, with $1,423,569,879 compared to Jurassic World Dominion at $990.6 million, Doctor Strange at $955 million, and Minions: The Rise of Gru at $869 million.
At the end of the day, that’s all Hollywood needs to do. They need to focus on providing the fans with what they want to see, and it’s clear people are in a mood for something familiar, but different, from what we have been getting lately with superhero movies being shoved down our throats over and over again. Just give us good old-fashioned entertainment, something which we can enjoy watching while chewing the popcorn. That’s all we want.
What strikes me about the summer box office in 2022 is we have these five big winners, and then a huge drop down to the other releases. I have used the words “feast or famine” way too much in describing Hollywood box office numbers, but this summer was really stark.
The number six movie was Elvis, with a domestic gross at $147 million. Then in seventh was Lightyear at $118 million, around the same haul as Nope.
This had to be a huge disappointment for PIXAR. Lightyear was a follow-up on the successful Toy Story franchise and should have done a lot better than it did for that reason alone. But it just wasn’t well received for a lot of reasons. One complaint was that the voice wasn’t the same. Instead of Tim Allen, it was Chris Evans.
Perhaps this is a sign that the entire Toy Story franchise is finally played right out. Could be.
That’s our look at summer at the box office, and we now look forward to the rest of the year including what’s going to happen soon at the Toronto International Film Festival this month. See you soon.
