This weekend’s box office was par for the course, with “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” totaling up $394 million. The big 400 is in its sights in a couple of days. The US and international takes are about equal with the total so far around $733 million. That’s about half of what “Black Panther” did, but no one can complain.
Paramount re-released “Top Gun Maverick” to 1,864 theaters. There was not a clamor to see it again, however. The total take there was just $700,000, or $376 per screen. Pretty much everyone in the world has seen this movie at least once or twice, so this was just for promotional purposes.
The really big story is Searchlight’s “The Menu,” which has taken in $24.7 million and has become the coveted word of mouth movie. Someone says, “There’s nothing out there, what should I see?” And their friend replies, “Have you seen The Menu?” That’s what every studio wants! Congrats. Ralph Fiennes is having a moment as he’s also in a hit off Broadway show that no one can get into.
All the smaller Oscar buzzed movies are still struggling, which is too bad. It seems like MGM stopped reporting numbers on “Till” completely. Their “Bones and All” has been eaten alive, as well.
