Sony’s Bullet Train is concluding the summer movie season with a modest $30.1 million opening weekend, which is in line with forecasts, but slightly underwhelming for a $90 million action film starring Brad Pitt and a bunch of exciting actors such as Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Joey King, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Shannon, Sandra Bullock and Bad Bunny.
By comparison, The Lost City also debuted with the same figure earlier this year. That film featured Pitt in a widely-publicized extended cameo, while Bullock and Channing Tatum took top-billing. Bullock returned the favor with an appearance in Bullet Train, directed by hit-maker (and Pitt’s former stunt double) David Leitch, who previously helmed Deadpool 2 and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw to massive global success. Bullet Train fell short of not just the $40 million that Pitt’s last major box office play Once Upon a Time in Hollywood made in its opening weekend back in 2019, but paled in comparison to Mr. & Mrs. Smith’s $50 million debut in 2005.
With mixed reviews and a so-so B+ CinemaScore from opening day audiences, Bullet Train’s best bet is the absolute lack of competition in the next few weeks. Indeed, the next big hit of the year could very realistically be as far away as November, when Disney’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever debuts in theaters.
The number two spot went to last weekend’s top dog, DC League of Super-Pets. The film made $10.9 million this weekend, taking its running domestic total to $44 million. Budgeted at $90 million, the animated superhero adventure is facing stiff competition from holdover hit Minions: The Rise of Gru, which claimed the fifth spot with a $7.1 million sixth weekend. With $334 million at the domestic box office, The Rise of Gru will soon overtake the first Minions film’s $336 million lifetime gross.
Jordan Peele’s Nope is knocking on the door of $100 million at the domestic box office. It added another $8.5 million this weekend, taking its running total to over $97 million — a terrific result for a mid-budget original film marketed solely on the strength of Peele’s brand. It’s three for three for the filmmaker, whose last two movies — Get Out and Us — made a combined total of over half-a-billion dollars at the global box office.
Disney’s Thor: Love and Thunder took the fourth spot with $7.6 million in its fifth weekend. This takes the superhero sequel’s running domestic total to $316 million, which means that the fourth Thor film has now passed the lifetime gross of Thor: Ragnarok. Worldwide, however, Love and Thunder is still trailing Ragnarok, mostly because it wasn’t released in China and Russia.
The week’s two other releases — Easter Sunday and Bodies Bodies Bodies — debuted with $5.3 million and $226,526 (from six screens), respectively. Elsewhere, Top Gun: Maverick passed Titanic to become the seventh highest-grossing film of all time domestically, after adding $7 million in its 11th weekend and pushing its domestic haul to $662 million. You can watch our interview with Maverick director Joseph Kosinski here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
