Modern Hollywood is dominated by movies that are based on popular intellectual properties, but there are still some specific filmmakers who are singlehandedly a box office draw. It’s a small group, but Jordan Peele is most certainly included. His directorial debut, 2017’s Get Out, was a box office revelation (earning over $250 million worldwide) and the success of Us in 2019 was driven by fascination with the writer/director. Now Peele has further proven the power of his name, as Nope has become his third straight hit.
Check out the full Top 10 for this past weekend in the chart below, and join me after for analysis!
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Nope | $44,000,000 | $44,000,000 | 3,785 | |
| 2. Thor: Love And Thunder | $22,100,000 | $276,220,698 | 1 | 4,370 |
| 3. Minions: The Rise Of Gru | $17,710,000 | $297,856,590 | 2 | 3,816 |
| 4. Where The Crawdads Sing | $10,330,000 | $38,330,784 | 3 | 3,650 |
| 5. Top Gun: Maverick | $10,000,113 | $635,566,000 | 4 | 3,160 |
| 6. Elvis | $6,300,000 | $118,376,273 | 5 | 3,105 |
| 7. Paws Of Fury: The Legend Of Hank | $3,875,351 | $13,758,000 | 6 | 3,481 |
| 8. The Black Phone | $3,450,000 | $78,554,900 | 7 | 2,055 |
| 9. Jurassic World: Dominion | $2,960,000 | $365,511,635 | 8 | 2,165 |
| 10. Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris | $1,350,000 | $4,654,985 | 9 | 1,001 |
Nope Tops The Box Office With What’s Estimated To Be The Tenth Biggest Opening Weekend Of 2022 So Far
Making an estimated $44 million in its opening weekend, Nope wasn’t quite able to top the startling numbers that Us put up a little over three years ago (when it earned $71.1 million), but it is off to the second best start of Jordan Peele’s directorial career – having made about $11 million more than Get Out when comparing their first three days in theaters side-by-side. That success is admittedly relative, as the 2022 film also had a bigger budget than his previous two films, but it’s still definitely a win.
Of course, “bigger budget” is also a relative phrase in Hollywood, as Nope is not exactly Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love And Thunder, which cost a whopping $250 million to make, according to Variety). Reuters reports that the film cost a modest $68 million to make, so it is well on its way to earning a profit – and that’s only including its domestic numbers (it won’t be opening in a number of countries until next month).
According to The Numbers, the $44 million earned by Nope since Friday means that it had the tenth biggest opening weekend of 2022 so far – though that ranking may actually shift as final numbers come in. Speaking to the aforementioned power of Jordan Peele in an IP-driven business, the sci-fi film is currently sandwiched between Ruben Fleischer’s video game adaptation Uncharted (which made $44,010,155 back in February) and David Yates’ Wizarding World sequel Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore (which made $42.2 million in April). Again, both of those titles cost considerably more than Peele’s latest, further emphasizing the good news.
Also of note is how well Nope is doing as an R-rated summer release. After just three days the movie is already the fifth biggest release with a restricted rating in 2022. It has a fair amount of ground to make up to catch up to Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Scream (which made $81.6 million before it finished in theaters) and Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone (which is still performing well in the back half of the Top 10), but Peele’s latest is coming up on Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All At Once (which has brought in $68.1 million) and Jeff Tremaine’s Jackass Forever (which earned $57.7 million).
This should certainly be appreciated as great news for Jordan Peele fans. The better that his films do, the more confidence he is going to earn from studios to let him make the movies that he wants to make – and I think it’s fair to say that happening is a very positive thing for the industry overall.
Thor: Love And Thunder Takes Another Box Office Dip, But It’s Also On The Precipice Of Another Milestone
Last week, my box office column took a specific look at the considerable weekend-to-weekend drop that Thor: Love And Thunder experienced following its blockbuster start, as the Marvel Studios release fell a scary 68 percentage points. Looking at this weekend’s numbers, it can’t really be said that things are much improving, but at the very least it is going to cross a milestone number very soon.
After making $46.6 million in its sophomore week of release, Thor: Love And Thunder dropped another 53 percent in weekend #3, earning $22.1 million. That was still enough to keep it ahead of Kyle Balda’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru in the ranking, the animated hit adding $17.7 million to its domestic haul, but it looks like it is on a path to slip down into fifth place and lower very soon.
Looking at the big picture, the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe release is still performing exceptionally well by 2022 standards. While it seemingly wasn’t able to quite cross $600 million worldwide this past weekend, it has made $598.2 million so far, so that benchmark will probably be checked off the list tomorrow. It’s ranked as the seventh biggest blockbuster of the year globally, and it will slide into sixth place very soon – moving past Dante Lam, Tsui Hark, and Kaige Chen’s The Battle at Lake Changjin.
Top Gun: Maverick Continues To Soar High, Adding Another $10 Million To Its Domestic Total
What truly continues to be the most remarkable box office success story of the year is Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick. While summer hits like Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness And Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World: Dominion have moved down the Top 10 and out, the Tom Cruise blockbuster has been holding a spot in the Top 5 ever since its record-breaking Memorial Day opening weekend.
The film remains the only title other than Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: No Way Home to earn over $1 billion at the box office since the start of the pandemic, and what’s been impressive about that performance is the split between the domestic and foreign markets – which is almost 50-50, with 49.55 percent share belonging to the former. One might think that the film would skew more toward the United States given the subject matter being the U.S. military, but that clearly takes a backseat to the movie being a terrific cinematic experience.
As we look ahead to the last weekend of July 2022, Nope will be seeing challenges from a few new wide releases, including B.J. Novak’s comedy thriller Vengeance, Jared Stern and Sam Levine’s animated DC League Of Super Pets, and Ron Howard’s based-on-a-true-story drama Thirteen Lives. Head back here next Sunday to see how the new releases shake up the box office, and take a look at what else is ahead for theaters in what remains of the year with our 2022 Movie Release Calendar.