erik lundegaard

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Monday May 29, 2023

Box Office: The Post-Pandemic $100 Million Openers

This is more for me than you—unless you're curious about it like I am—but here are the movies with $100 million domestic openings since the pandemic:

Rank* Movie Opening Total Date
2 Spider-Man: No Way Home $260 $804 Dec. 2021
11 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness $187 $411 May 2022
13 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever $181 $453 Nov. 2022
30 The Super Mario Bros. Movie $146 $552** April 2023
31 Jurassic World: Dominion $145 $376 June 2022
32 Thor: Love and Thunder $144 $343 July 2022
38 Avatar: The Way of Water $134 $684 Dec. 2022
39 The Batman $134 $369 Mar. 2022
44 Top Gun: Maverick $126 $718 May 2022
52 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 $118 $304** May 2023
63 Minions: The Rise of Gru $107 $369 July 2022
64 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania $106 $214 Feb. 2023

* I.e., its rank among all-time openers
** And counting

Obviously none in 2020 and just one in 2021—at the tail end—but that one was a doozy. Last year, though, there were eight. Eight! That seems like a lot. Is it? Here are the number of $100 million domestic openings prior to Covid:

  • 2019: 6
  • 2018: 5
  • 2017: 7
  • 2016: 8
  • 2015: 6

So, like St. George Costanza, are we back, baby? Not quite. Actually not even close. Total domestic box office eclipsed $10 billion in 2009, reached highs of $11.8 and $11.3 billion in 2018-19, then plummeted to $2.1 billion during our first, shuttered year. It's been rising slowly since: $4.4 billion in 2021, $7.3 billion in 2022 and $3.3 so far this year. Not bad, but nothing approaching 11 digits. Plus higher ticket prices means we're actually talking fewer asses in seats. Plus, based on the above, I'd wager many of those asses are the same ones over and over again. I.e., if you come out for opening weekend of “Doctor Strange” you probably do the same for “Thor” and “Black Panther” and all of it. I do worry what happens if we tire of superhero flicks the way we tired of westerns. I don't know what comes next. Superheroes are basically supercharged John Waynes, and is there anything beyond supercharged John Waynes? I don't have the imagination for that. I just have the imagination to see more theaters shuttered forever. 

This weekend, Disney's live-action “Little Mermaid” nearly became the 13th post-pandemic $100 million opener but it topped out at $95 (sans Memorial Day). The second weekend of “Fast X” grossed another $23, the fourth weekend of “Guardians 3” added $19, the eighth weekend of “Super Mario” $6. Among the smaller openers, “The Machine” (topless standup Bert Kreischer) grossed $4.9, “About My Father” with Robert De Niro $4.2, “Kandahar” $2.4, and Nicole Holofcener's “You Hurt My Feelings” with Julia Louis-Dreyfus $1.3.

Posted at 02:07 PM on Monday May 29, 2023 in category Movies - Box Office