'Elvis,' 'The Black Phone' take their turn at summer box office
A hot June release schedule for movies continues with this weekend, but the box-office summer stalwarts so far are likely to keep piling up the moviegoer dollars.
Two films take a stab at wide release this weekend: Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) is out with Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, a musical biography covering the King of Rock 'n' Roll. And Universal/Blumhouse (NASDAQ:CMCSA) has some out-of-season horror with The Black Phone.
The films have a tall order eclipsing the summer mainstays so far. Elvis (WBD) appears headed for an opening of perhaps $30M, while The Black Phone (CMCSA) would likely be happy with $15M. And that means - after a modest debut from Lightyear
(DIS) last weekend - an opportunity for Tom Cruise to ring the registers again.
His Top Gun: Maverick (PARA) (PARAA) is the year's top-grossing film - and some truly exceptional week-to-week holds on theater business mean it could reclaim the top spot in grosses, after two weeks ceding that position to Jurassic World Dominion (CMCSA).
The dinosaur franchise's latest opened to $145.1M two weeks ago and registered $59.2M in its follow-up week - but Top Gun: Maverick (PARA) (PARAA) hit $44.7M in its fourth weekend, a surprisingly low decline of just 14% from the week prior.
If Jurassic World Dominion and Lightyear see more typical weekly drop-offs, Maverick could have the high position yet again. (What can't hurt: IMAX (IMAX) said yesterday it was returning the Cruise film to its large-format theaters for the weekend, after giving up some space to the other two films on their openings.)
Top Gun: Maverick (PARA) (PARAA) has piled up $491.2M domestically and $913.3M worldwide, besting the $407.5M domestic of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (DIS) - though Disney's film has $945.3M worldwide so far.
Also continuing to reap benefits from June's top-loaded releases are cinemas: AMC Entertainment (AMC); Cineworld (OTCPK:CNNWF); Cinemark (CNK); (IMAX); Marcus (MCS); Reading International (RDI); Cineplex (OTCPK:CPXGF); National CineMedia (NCMI).