‘Elvis’ Rocks To Baz Luhrmann’s Highest Grossing Movie At Domestic Box Office

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Barbarian,” a horror movie that may have audiences thinking twice about booking that next Airbnb, scared up a better-than-expected $10 million in its domestic debut. Since the box office has been a wasteland for some weeks now, those ticket sales were enough to lead domestic charts, despite barely reaching double digits. This weekend’s other new nationwide release, “Brahmastra Part One: Shiva,” opened in second place with $4.4 million from 810 North American theaters. Both films are backed by Disney. Though “Barbarian” landed a tepid “C+” CinemaScore, the twisty thriller is benefitting from word-of-mouth, given the film’s zany and flat-out terrifying turns. Variety’s Peter Debruge gave “Barbarian” high praise, calling it a “new horror classic,” one that gets “downright demented as it goes along.” If “Barbarian,” which stars Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long, keeps people talking, the movie is likely to keep filling seats during a creaky September at the box office.

That would give this September weekend the second-lowest total of any weekend in 2022. The only weekend with a lower amount is the weekend of Jan. 28 with $34 million.

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: With the exit of New Line’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot in what has been a lucrative post Labor Day weekend pre-pandemic, Disney swooped in and booked its 20th Century Studios horror title Barbarian. That pic, directed and written by Zach Cregger, follows a woman staying at an Airbnb, who discovers that the house she has rented is not what it seems. The movie grossed $3.8M on Friday (including $850K Thursday night previews) and is poised to make around $9M, possibly double digits.

“Elvis” is one-of-a-kind, and now you have a chance to get the inside scoop on how Baz Luhrmann’s electric biopic was made with the film’s home video release.TheWrap is giving away five copies of “Elvis” on 4K Blu-ray to five lucky fans ahead of the film’s 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD release on Sept. 13.All you have to do is sign up to enter our giveaway right here.The film – which is also available to own on Digital – stars Austin Butler as The King himself, as the director behind “Moulin Rogue!,” “Romeo + Juliet” and “The Great Gatsby” takes a unique approach to telling his life’s story from the point of view of his conniving (and controlling) manager Colonel Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks.This is a cradle-to-grave biopic the likes of which you’ve never seen before, as Luhrmann infuses the film with an electricity that relays to modern audiences just how shocking (and striking) Elvis was in his prime.The 4K Blu-ray includes the film on 4K UHD as well as a bounty of bonus features that include the following:“Elvis” is also available to purchase on Digital and streaming on HBO Max right now.

Widespread optimism months ago that domestic box office might readily return to pre-Covid levels has given way to a new sense of pragmatism about the movie business.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Family comedy “Table For Six” has set an opening day local record for a comedy film in Hong Kong, to the relief of producers who were forced to digest a releasing delay of six months. The Sunny Chan-directed film opened Wednesday in Hong Kong and Macau at 61 theatres, playing a total of 608 sessions. That gave it an accumulated box office of HK$1,986,701 ($255,000). “Table for Six,” which chronicles a family’s holiday gathering where food, love, friendship, jealousy and relationships are on the menu, had originally been planned as a dish to be served at Chinese New Year, in February. And producers had assembled a cast of major Hong Kong and regional talents, including Dayo Wong, Stephy Tang, Louise Cheung, Ivana Wong, Lin Min-Chen and Chan Charm Man.

Broadway gave Billy Crystal a fine send-off last week, with the star’s Mr. Saturday Night musical grossing more than $1 million during its final week of performances. That number – $1,014,614, to be precise – is a big jump over the show’s weekly box office takes in recent months. About 98% of seats at the Nederlander Theatre were filled for Crystal’s goodbye week.

Naman Ramachandran In its 15th weekend of release, Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick” is still flying high at the U.K. and Ireland box office. The Tom Cruise vehicle collected £600,258 ($692,670) in third place at the box office, according to numbers released by Comscore. With a total of £81.6 million ($94.1 million) it has overtaken “Titanic” (£80.3 million) to occupy the No. 9 position on the all time box office chart in the territory. Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” swung back into cinemas with an extended cut and collected £469,309 in fifth position in its 38th weekend in the territory. With a total of £96.9 million, it has swung past James Bond film “No Time to Die” (£96.7 million) and is now No. 3 among the territory’s all time box office champions. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (£123.2 million) and another Bond title “Skyfall” (£103.2 million) are the top two.

Top Gun: Maverick” has reached a milestone it has been projected to hit for months: $700 million in domestic grosses. The film pulled in $7.9 million in ticket sales between Friday and Monday, bringing its total domestic gross to $701 million.In doing so, the Tom Cruise blockbuster now stands among the top 5 highest grossing films ever in North America before inflation adjustment, joining a list led by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($936 million) and also include “Avengers: Endgame,” ($858 million), “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($804 million), and “Avatar” ($760.5 million).

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Top Gun: Maverick” has crossed $700 million in North America, becoming one of six movies to ever surpass that milestone at the domestic box office. The film returned to the top of box office charts over Labor Day weekend, adding $7.5 million between Friday and Monday and bringing ticket sales to $701 million. According to Paramount, “Maverick” is the only film to ever be No. 1 at the domestic box office for both Memorial Day and Labor Day holidays.  After 15 weeks of release, the sequel to Tom Cruise’s 1986 blockbuster has overtaken Marvel’s behemoth “Black Panther” ($700.4 million) as the fifth-highest grossing movie in domestic box office history. Impressively, the “Top Gun” follow-up has long flown past “Black Panther” internationally and globally. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell’s latest mission has racked up $740 million overseas and $1.44 billion worldwide while T’Challa’s super-heroic adventure tapped out with $674 million overseas and $1.347 billion worldwide.

This was yet another soft weekend at the international box office with no major fresh titles and as summer fully closes out in Europe and beyond.

Neon in association with National Geographic Documentary Films said director Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love will cross $1 million at the box office this weekend, becoming the biggest documentary release of the year for combined domestic and international gross. The film opened this summer and is entering its ninth week in theaters nationally. It will stream on Disney+ later this year.

What to watch: 7 movies & shows to stream this week - Aug 19What to watch: 7 movies & shows to stream this week - August 25thThe stakes are high for “Rings of Power,” a show that has the daunting task of adapting one of the world’s most beloved properties. Amazon spared no expense in its production, spending $715 million on its first season. According to early reviews, the money appears to have been well spent, delivering a show that’s grand and in line with the beloved Peter Jackson films.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Italian film industry is in a paradoxical state: production is booming but box office is bust. Italy’s five features vying for a Venice Golden Lion – plus a myriad more scattered in other Lido sections – reflect cinema Italiano’s current creative vibrancy, if you look at the cream of the crop; however, the average quality is not that great. On the plus side, the country is making a quantum leap forward in terms of the global visibility of its movies just as the number of Italian directors considered bankable in Hollywood, such as Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino and Stefano Sollima (“Without Remorse”), to name but a few, is growing.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Italian film industry is in a paradoxical state: production is booming but box office is bust. Italy’s five features vying for a Venice Golden Lion – plus a myriad more scattered in other Lido sections – reflect cinema Italiano’s current creative vibrancy, if you look at the cream of the crop; however, the average quality is not that great. On the plus side, the country is making a quantum leap forward in terms of the global visibility of its movies just as the number of Italian directors considered bankable in Hollywood, such as Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino and Stefano Sollima (“Without Remorse”), to name but a few, is growing.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media After Warner Bros. executives signed off on the risky decision to bankroll their $90 million look at the life of Elvis Presley with a little-known actor portraying the hip-swinging rocker, producer Gail Berman reached for her phone. She wanted to immortalize the moment for Austin Butler, the man who reportedly beat out the likes of Ansel Elgort and Miles Teller to land the kind of role that can make a career. “I needed to take a photo of all these people sitting around after they made a decision that was going to mark a major change in Austin’s life,” says Berman. “It was wonderful that they saw from his screen test just how good he was, and that they were ready to support him on this journey.”

A glum weekend box office overall (one of the worst of the year) wasn’t so awful for specialty, relatively speaking, with Breaking passing $1M on 900 screens and Spanish-language The Good Boss at $27K on 15. Both are a far cry from pre-pandemic numbers but did hit the new normal for limited releases – reaching at least $1 million on 500 to 1,000 screens, and keeping the per theater average above three digits.

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: The bowels of the summer box office have been reached with Sony’s new C CinemaScore horror movie The Invitation leading with $6M-$7M at 3,114 theaters. Like the late Andy Rooney, I get a lot of mail from sources, but in this instance it’s about why it’s important to be gentle when covering the box office. We’re still in the pandemic, we’re not back yet, it’s not good for our business to be nasty, blah blah blah. However, simply putting random movies in theaters without any great P&A spend doesn’t do the box office, or exhibitors any favors. This weekend will rank as the lowest grossing weekend to date of summer with an estimated $54M for all titles (some even have it lower). If it makes anyone feel better, it’s not the worst weekend of the year. That belongs to Jan. 28-30 when all titles made $34.9M per Box Office Mojo.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter After a crackling summer season, movie theater owners have been sounding the alarm on the disturbingly light release schedule this fall. And yet, three new films will open in theaters nationwide over the weekend. Perhaps the bigger issue, in the case of this weekend’s crop of newcomers, is that hardly anyone is making plans to go to the cinema. Of the trio of fresh offerings — Sony’s eerie thriller “The Invitation,” director George Miller’s dark fantasy “Three Thousand Years of Longing” and the John Boyega-led heist drama “Breaking” — not one is poised to make a splash at the box office. Based on projections, it’ll be a close race between “The Invitation” and last weekend’s champion “‘Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” to claim the No. 1 spot in North America, with each release on track to bring in around $7 million. And to the victor goes…some pretty anemic bragging rights. Barring a miracle, it’ll be the saddest first-place finish in over a year.