Broadway Box Office Up Slightly To $31M As Large Spring Roster Leaves Some Seats Empty

With that total, the blockbuster starring Tom Cruise has beaten the record held by “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” with $153 million, a record that has stood since 2007. Paramount also reports an actual 3-day opening of $126.7 million, which ranks fourth among all films released since theaters reopened and second behind “Iron Man 2” ($128) on Paramount’s all-time list.

Tom Cruise may be one of the biggest movie stars ever, but his movies have never opened to enormous numbers.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterTom Cruise’s star-spangled blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” capped off Memorial Day weekend with a box office debut for record books. The sequel, which sees Cruise return to the cockpit after 36 years, collected $156 million in its first four days of release.Those ticket sales were enough to overtake Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” which launched with $153 million over the long weekend in 2007, as the biggest Memorial Day debut in history.Paramount and Skydance had originally expected “Top Gun: Maverick” to finish the long weekend with $151 million, but the film had a better-than-expected turnout on Sunday, pushing the three-day haul to $126 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefLocally-produced action franchise movie “The Roundup” continued to stomp its way across the South Korean box office for a second weekend, giving theatres their best month of the year.Over the weekend. “The Roundup” rounded up $15.4 million from 2,520 screens nationwide, according to KOBIS, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Box office is big news this week, not so much for its totals as for its totemic significance. Throngs will greet Top Gun: Maverick, but will kids join the grownups to see a nearly 60 year-old actor starring in a sequel to a 36 year-old hit? At the other end of the audience spectrum, will seniors conquer their torpor to catch the new Downton and even lure their kids – the movie is dubiously titled Downton Abbey: A New Era to motivate the youth quadrant.

Miley Cyrus looked stunning while supporting her friend Pamela Anderson, who is currently on Broadway, starring in the popular production of Chicago as Roxie Hart.The singer wore a gold leopard dress, attending the show with her mom Tish Cyrus, who wore leather black pants and a black top.

Last week’s Tony Award nominations translated into box office sales for at least some of the contenders, with A Strange Loop seeing the biggest boost: The musical, which topped the Tony list with 11 nominations, saw a $213,871 increase in its weekly grosses, taking in $690,668 for the week ending May 15.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe mainland China box office remained moribund over the latest weekend, lacking direction or new releases and achieving nationwide revenue of just $11.4 million.The country is continuing to suffer from clusters of COVID infections that have caused mass lockdowns in some cities and the temporary closure of many cinemas. Even as there is now talk of easing restrictions in Shanghai, which had been locked down for five weeks, there is the prospect of new restrictions in capital city Beijing. The government has also imposed a blanket ban on all but essential overseas travel.U.S.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentEurope’s movie production levels bounced back to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. The continent’s box office, however, lagged way behind, gross revenues coming in at less than half those before COVID-19, according to the 2022 edition of Focus – World Film Market Trends.  A reference for much of the film industry in Europe, the annual report is prepared for Cannes Marché du Film by the European Audiovisual Observatory.

Audrey Diwan’s opened to an estimated $34k on four screens in NY and LA this weekend for a PTA of $8,500. The locations on both coasts — IFC Center/AMC Lincoln Square and The Landmark/AMC The Grove — while limited showed the abortion drama set in 1968 France competing successfully in commercial crossover multiplexes as well as arthouses.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the newest timeline-altering tentpole in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, captured a huge $265 million in its international box office debut.Those mighty ticket sales represent the second-biggest opening weekend overseas in pandemic times. Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” still stands as the highest-grossing COVID-era debut with $340 million internationally.The second “Doctor Strange” film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the goatee-rocking sorcerer, generated $185 million in North America over the weekend, bringing its global tally to a massive $450 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” opened with a stunning $14.4 million debut weekend in South Korea, far in excess of any film this year at the Korean box office. Its five-day opening score was $29.1 million.Data from the Korean Film Council’s Kobis tracking service shows the film garnered an 87% market share over the weekend, as it lifted nationwide box office to pre-COVID levels for the first time in more than two years.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterDoctor Strange and his questionably effective book of spells has summoned a blockbuster $185 million at North American movie theaters over the weekend, reaffirming the box office dominance of Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe after a shakier, pandemic-battered year for the franchise.The timeline-bending “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” represents a return to form for Disney’s MCU after COVID-era releases “Black Widow” ($80 million debut, plus $60 million on Disney Plus), “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” ($75 million debut), and “Eternals” ($71 million debut). Due to the pandemic and other extenuating circumstances, those installments failed to live up to their franchise predecessors in terms of ticket sales.

It’s official: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is massive.

Though that’s below the $202 million opening that industry estimates had following the MCU film’s $90 million opening day, it is still at the top of the $170-185 million estimate that Disney posted. Globally, “Doctor Strange 2” has earned an opening of $450 million, second only to “Spider-Man: No Way Home” for worldwide openings since the COVID-19 pandemic began.