The Battle for the Box Office continues as the summer heat kicks into high gear. As always, we turn to the phenomenal The Numbers for the latest in box office projections.
Thor: Love and Thunder continued to benefit from a second straight week of zero competition as it cruised to an easy first place win with a projected $46 million in the domestic box office.
However, all is not sunshine and roses for the God of Thunder as this movie suffered a massive 68% drop-off compared to the opening weekend. This is largely due to poor word of mouth that Thor: Love and Thunder has received. We have also seen large amounts of negative press for Phase 4 and Thor: Love and Thunder in particular all over the mainstream news websites. This is unusual and the first time I can remember the mainstream media being this negative on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
We already did the math in our article for Thor: Love and Thunder’s opening weekend. Essentially, Thor: Love and Thunder needs to cross the $700 million mark before Disney begins to see any profit at all. At the moment, Thor: Love and Thunder sits at $497 million at the worldwide box office. This is slightly below projections for this movie.
It is going to be critical for Thor: Love and Thunder to have some legs over the next few weeks. Disney cannot afford to take another loss after having Lightyear bomb so badly. I am not bullish at all on Thor: Love and Thunder. I have a feeling that the poor word of mouth and all of the negative press is going to continue to hurt any future success of this movie over the next several weeks. At any rate, this is going to be very interesting to watch over the next few weeks.
Minions: Rise of Gru easily took second place with a projected $26 million at the domestic box office. This now puts Minions: Rise of Gru at $532 million at the worldwide box office. In just three weeks, Minions: Ruse of Gru has doubled Lightyear’s worldwide box office over five weeks. That is stunning.
Where the Crawdads Sing debuted in third place. This small budget drama from Sony took in $17 million at the domestic box office. Nobody is expecting this movie to do much at the box office. However, with just a $24 million production budget, Where the Crawdads Sing does not need to gross a big number in order to return a profit to Sony.
Top Gun: Maverick slotted in at a fourth place in its eight-week in theaters. Amazing. Two months into its theatrical run and Top Gun: Maverick is still in the Top 5. Top Gun: Maverick brought in an additional $12 million at the domestic box office. Top Gun: Maverick now sits at $1.16 billion at the worldwide box office. Tom Cruise’s movie is setting the example of how to properly restart an old franchise.
Elvis took fifth place by bringing in $7.6 million at the domestic box office. Elvis now has $185 million at the worldwide box office and is outperforming expectations. With an $85 million production budget and an estimated $42.5 million marketing budget, it looks like Elvis is officially making a nice profit for Warner Bros.
Now, where is Lightyear? It is down at the number 10 spot in its fifth week at the box office. Lightyear brought in a meager $1.3 million at the domestic box office. This puts Lightyear at a total worldwide box office of just $212 million.
It is now no longer any debate. Lightyear is officially Pixar’s biggest bomb ever. Cars 3 ended up with a $383 million worldwide box office. The Good Dinosaur ended up with a $333 million worldwide box office. Those box office numbers are unadjusted for inflation. Lightyear is not just Pixar’s biggest bomb of all time. Lightyear is Pixar’s biggest bomb by a massive margin.
As we have discussed before, Lightyear needed to break $600 million in order to turn a profit for Disney. At this point, Lightyear is going to be a massive loss for Disney. The pressure is going to be on Pixar to crush it out of the ballpark with their next movie. And, no, I do not think that Disney Park fans have to be worried anymore with the rumor that Bob Chapek was going to re-theme Space Mountain in Disney World and Space Mountain in Disneyland into Lightyear rides.
