‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Passes $700 Million — and ‘Black Panther’ — at Domestic Box Office

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Despite 13 years passing since “Avatar” first hit theaters, moviegoers are apparently still dazzled by the striking world of Pandora. In anticipation of the sequel “The Way of Water,” which opens in December, Disney re-released James Cameron’s original science-fiction epic to promising returns. The film generated $10 million in North America and $20.5 million internationally over the weekend, a huge result for movie that opened more than a decade ago, even if that movie happens to be the highest-grossing global release in history. With this weekend’s returns, “Avatar” widens its lead as the biggest movie of all time with $2.85 billion worldwide.

Maverick in training. Lewis Pullman is not only praising his dad, Bill Pullman, for his generous influence, but also his Top Gun costars Tom Cruise and Miles Teller.

It’s a fourth big week at Number 1 for Top Gun: Maverick on the Official Film Chart as it continues to fly ahead on digital downloads only.

Naman Ramachandran Disney’s “See How They Run” occupied the top spot for the second weekend in a row at the U.K. and Ireland box office, with £984,779 ($1.1 million), per numbers released by Comscore. The film now has a total of £2.8 million. In its seventh weekend, Sony’s “Bullet Train,” starring Brad Pitt, collected £325,252 in second place for a total of £10.3 million. In third position with £321,746 was Universal’s “Minions: The Rise Of Gru,” which now has a total of £45.1 million after 12 weekends. Paramount’s Tom Cruise vehicle “Top Gun: Maverick” stormed back into the top five with £320,963 in fourth place. With a total of £82.6 million after 17 weekends, the film is the top grossing film of 2022 in the territory and eighth on the all time chart behind “Avengers: Endgame” (£88.7 million).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief For the second weekend running, comedy action film “Confidential Assignment 2: International” held top spot at the South Korean box office. And it did so with a massive 75% share of the market. But as the Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) holiday retreated into the rear-view mirror numbers, both for the sequel film and the nationwide box office, came crashing down. “Confidential Assignment 2” earned $6.89 million over the latest Friday to Sunday period, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). That figure was down 57% compared with its opening salvo of $21.0 million a week earlier.

Julia Roberts and George Clooney landed at the top of the international box office chart this weekend as Universal/Working Title’s Ticket to Paradise expanded its offshore rollout. Adding 39 markets for a $12.1M session in 46 lifted the overseas cume to $14.8M with several majors still to come; domestic begins on October 21. Collectively, the new markets this session performed above Last Christmas and Yesterday, and in line with The Lost City and Bridget Jones’s Baby. 

Letitia Wright has been in some of the biggest films of all time, playing a superhero for Marvel Studios. But her role in the new movie, “The Silent Twins,” directed by celebrated Polish auteur Agnieszka Smoczynska (“Lure“), might have been one of the most intense productions she has experienced in her career thus far.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Regé-Jean Page and Glen Powell will star in TV series about Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid for Amazon, Variety has confirmed with sources. The untitled series will be executive produced by The Russo Brothers under their AGBO production banner. Kaz and Ryan Firpo, who most recently worked on Marvel’s “The Eternals,” will write. The search is currently on for a showrunner. According to sources, deals for the series are not yet closed and discussions are ongoing. Exact plot details are being kept under wraps but it is known that Page will play Cassidy while Powell will play The Sundance Kid. Both actors will also serve as executive producers on the show in addition to starring. Mike Larocca, Angela Russo-Otstot, and Scott Nemes of AGBO will also executive.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Gianni Amelio’s “Lord of the Ants,” a biopic of Italian poet and playwright Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law, has reached the top spot at Italy’s box office following its launch from the Venice Film Festival. “Ants” on Monday reached the numero uno position at the local box office roster with a €483,474 ($487,000) intake from more than 300 screens following its September 8 release. While far from stellar in normal times, this result is being hailed as an encouraging sign for the country’s still sagging post-pandemic theatrical sector. Amelio’s film is now ahead of Japanese anime pic “Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo,” which was released as an event on Monday for a three day run, and “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” which is at the end of its run, following it’s Aug. 18 Italian outing.

Refresh for latest…: There was a little more excitement at the international box office this weekend, with two local movies leading the charge and a handful of new milestones for Hollywood pics.

Ethan Shanfeld As “Top Gun: Maverick” continues to dominate the box office more than three months after its release, Jon Hamm, who stars in the movie as Vice Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson, is still celebrating its success. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Hamm noted that the Tom Cruise-led sequel is the only film to top the box office on both Memorial Day (when it premiered) and Labor Day. “That’s unprecedented in many ways,” Hamm said. “It’s one of the only top five [films] that doesn’t have somebody in a cape or on a spaceship. It’s a story about real people, it’s got a lot of emotional resonance, people are really responding to it.”

Top Gun: Maverick claims a second week at Number 1 on the Official Film Chart, surpassing the 500,000 sales mark in just 11 days.

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.

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.

Labor Day weekend saw blockbusters old and new buoyed by cheap tickets, as was a limited openings like Saloum with multiple sold out screenings at two theaters, including every showtime on Saturday.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Movie theaters and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad end-of-summer continues at the box office. Without any major releases on the calendar, Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — yes, a movie that debuted in December of 2021 — managed to return to the No. 1 spot in North America. Sony re-released the film with 11 minutes of extra footage that proved to be tantalizing to comic book fans, bringing in $6 million from 3,935 theaters over the weekend. “No Way Home” is expected to finish the Labor Day holiday weekend on Monday with $7.6 million. Another holdover, Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” is trailing ever-so-slightly with $5.5 million between Friday and Sunday and an estimated $7 million through Monday. Since ticket sales are close, the final order could change on Monday. In any case, the triumph of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Top Gun: Maverick” highlights the bleakness at the box office considering both of those films are widely available on home entertainment.

Current industry estimates have overall figures for the 4-day weekend finishing at just $63-65 million. In 2021, “Shang-Chi” boosted that total to $140 million, and prior to the pandemic, only one Labor Day weekend in the 2010s saw a 4-day total below $100 million ($97 million in 2017.)The National Association of Theater Owners stemmed the tide somewhat with National Cinema Day, a campaign that offered $3 movie tickets at cinemas nationwide on Saturday with major chains like Cinemark and AMC also offering discounts on popcorn and soda.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter A record number of people went to the movies on Saturday in honor of National Cinema Day. Thanks to heavily discounted tickets, an estimated 8.1 million moviegoers attended their local multiplex to purchase tickets for just $3, making Sept. 3 the highest-attended day of the year for theaters, according to the National Association of Theater Owners. In an effort to populate multiplexes during the dog days of summer, more than 3,000 theaters across the country, including major chains like AMC and Regal, were charging just $3 for admission to any movie in any format — far less expensive than the country’s average ticket price.