This summer's blockbuster season closes with its most disappointing weekend at the box office yet, and the pandemic isn't to blame. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic dealt a critical blow to movie theaters. Quarantine requirements and production limitations severely depleted box office ratings and changed the way movies are distributed. With many premieres being postponed or released exclusively on streaming sites like HBO Max and Disney+, for a while it looked like movie theaters would never recover their pre-pandemic audiences.
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Thankfully, the second-half of 2021 brought better days for the box office, with hits like the MCU's Spider-Man: No Way Home, which became one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Then, 2022 brought with it the return of a true summer blockbuster season that saw several successful releases. Tom Cruise and his long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick were especially successful among the box office hits. The action film managed to become the highest-grossing film of the year and has already surpassed Avengers: Infinity War on the domestic charts, grossing over $679 million. Still, the high numbers seen at the beginning of the summer couldn't carry through to the end.
Variety reports that the domestic box office generated around $52.7 million over this weekend, a dismal performance for the season. These numbers are the lowest the domestic box office has seen in months and featured the lowest first-place finish for the domestic charts since May 2021 with the supernatural horror filmThe Invitation opening at a meager $7 million. The Brad Pitt-led Bullet Train and Idris Elba's survival thriller Beast rounded off this weekend's domestic box office top three at second and third place respectively.
The domestic box office charts saw similar numbers in 2020 and 2021 and were able to bounce back when audience concern for the coronavirus relaxed. However, unlike in 2021, this weekend's poor results likely can't be contributed to the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, they are due to a lack of interest in the weekend's debut lineup. The two other films which opened alongside The Invitation this weekend also performed poorly. George Miller's Three Thousand Years of Longing bombed, earning only $2.87 million, and Breaking, which features Star Wars' John Boyega, earned barely over $1.02 million in sales. All three of this weekend's openings contrast sharply with early summer releases' turnouts, pointing to moviegoers' lack of interest and general awareness. Overall, the lackluster box office performances were a disappointing end to an otherwise successful summer season.
While the next few weeks may continue to see low numbers on the charts, several anticipated fall premieres should rejuvenate ticket sales again. Such draws include Olivia Wilde's psychological thriller Don't Worry Darling and the latest DCEU installment Black Adam, which will see Dwayne Johnson starring in the title role. Still, movie theaters were already struggling with maintaining regular numbers pre-pandemic, so these sharp rises and declines in sales shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. If the industry wants to bolster the box office in between major blockbuster releases, it will first need to consider how to attract interest for smaller projects.