Jordan Peele is now 3-for-3.
For the third time in as many efforts, writer / director Jordan Peele has debuted a horror movie at #1. Taking in $44 million at the box office, Nope (starring Oscar-winner Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) enjoyed the largest three-day launch of a completely original non-IP movie since, well, since Peele’s Us back in the spring of 2019.
While the $44M gross came in under the lowest estimates (pre-release projections forecasted a launch anywhere between $45M to $60M), it’s still an impressive showing given its genre (horror), rating (R), and, again, being a complete original with no pre-existing property or fandom. Unless you count Peele who, as a filmmaker, has quickly become a brand unto to himself.
Plus, when you consider in the post-pandemic factor (and the fact that Us opened within a year of Peele’s breakout Oscar-winner Get Out), it would be difficult to classify the “low” $44M tally as a failure.
Nevertheless, word-of-mouth will tell the tale if Nope can match the near-identical grosses of Get Out and Us; each landed at about $176M domestic and $255M worldwide.
Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder finally dropped to second place after reigning for two weeks, sliding 53% for a third weekend take of $22.1 million. Its domestic total thus far stands at $276.2M and $598M globally. While close to the $600M mark worldwide, it has a way to go if it hopes to catch its predecessor Thor: Ragnarok which hauled in $853M.
Universal’s animated Minions: The Rise of Gru held steady at third with $17.7 million. After its fourth weekend, the Despicable prequel stands at $297.8M domestic and $640.2M worldwide.
Literary adaptation Where The Crawdads Sing continues to thrive as solid adult counter-programming. It finished at #4 in its second weekend with $10.33M, bringing its 10-day domestic total to $38.3M.
Finishing a nose behind Crawdads was Top Gun: Maverick, the year’s runaway blockbuster hit. In its 10th weekend, it still has yet to drop out of the Top 5 or make less than $10M over a weekend frame. That’s a staggering hold even by pre-pandemic terms, as most grosses for major tentpoles are heavily front-loaded in the first 14-to-21 days. Most anticipated comic book movies don’t even maintain that steady flow of business for that long.
Historically, Maverick continues to climb the All Time chart as well. Currently at #9 on the Top 10 domestic box office list with $635 million, it will soon pass #8 (Jurassic World; $653M) and #7 (Titanic; $659M).