Weekend Box Office Predictions
August 19 - August 21, 2022
Published on August 18, 2022 at 5:30PM Pacific |
| As we move into the late summer season, Crunchyroll and Toei Animation's Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero will look to lead the domestic box office this weekend. The latest animated Dragon Ball film was directed by
Tetsuro Kodama and opened in Japan back in June. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is opening especially wide for an anime film, will also be playing on IMAX screens and will have Thursday preview shows beginning at 5PM. Thus far,
critical reviews for the film have been very good. Back in January of 2019, the previous animated Dragon Ball film, Dragon Ball Super: Broly opened on a Wednesday and went on to have a three-day opening weekend of $9.82 million and
a five-day start of $20.24 million. While anticipation for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero doesn't feel quite as high as it was for Dragon Ball Super: Broly, when it comes to three-day opening weekend grosses,
Super Hero will have a number of advantages over Broly, including a much wider launch, its mentioned IMAX screens (Broly only played on IMAX on its opening day Wednesday), and not having its grosses spread out by a
midweek opening. In general, theatrical anime films have also become more popular in North America in the 3+ years since the release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly. While the film is highly likely to be extremely front-loaded
towards its opening weekend performance, look for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero to debut with a healthy $15.3 million this weekend. |
| Also opening in wide release this weekend is Universal's Beast. The R-rated action thriller was directed by Baltasar Kormákur and stars Idris Elba, Iyana Halley, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Sharlto Copley.
Beast will be playing in a wide 3,743 locations this weekend and will have Thursday preview shows beginning at 5PM. On the average, critical reviews for Beast have been good, but not great. This past weekend,
Beast started off its international run with a modest $4.9 million from 30 international markets. Domestic anticipation for Beast also looks to be fairly modest, though the film could still prove to be less fan-driven and more
general audience friendly than usual for a thriller / horror genre film. Beast could also get a small boost this weekend from being the primary alternative choice for moviegoers not interested in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. BoxOfficeReport
is predicting that Beast will debut in second place this weekend with $11.0 million. |
| After leading the weekend box office each of the past two frames, Sony's Bullet Train should fall to third place this weekend. Last weekend, Bullet Train declined a sharp, but very reasonable
55.4 percent to take in $13.41 million. Bullet Train has continued to stabilize during the midweek this week and the film's Wednesday performance was down a very solid 34.7 percent from the previous Wednesday. However, at the
same time, Bullet Train will have to deal with playing in 576 fewer locations this weekend than last weekend (for a total of 3,781 locations this weekend) and with losing a sizable amount of average showtimes per location at
remaining locations (including the remainder of its IMAX shows). Bullet Train could also potentially take a bit of a hit from both of this weekend's new wide releases. Look for Bullet Train to decline a sizable
47.0 percent from last weekend for a weekend take of $7.1 million. |
| Paramount's Top Gun: Maverick is coming off of an exceptional hold, which saw the blockbuster sequel up 0.2 percent and four spots from the previous weekend to move into second place with $7.05 million. In
addition to continuing to benefit from its tremendous word of mouth, Top Gun: Maverick also received a boost last weekend from returning to select premium screens for limited showtimes. With Top Gun: Maverick coming off of
that boost, the film shouldn't be able to hold up quite that well this weekend, but in the bigger picture Top Gun: Maverick should still be in store for another exceptional weekend hold. A slim decline of 14.9 percent would
transfer into a fourth place take of $6.0 million for Top Gun: Maverick this weekend, which would move the film past the $678.82 million final domestic gross of 2018's Avengers: Infinity War for sixth place on the all-time
unadjusted domestic list. |
| Last weekend Warner's DC League of Super-Pets declined a solid 36.6 percent to place in third with $7.003 million. Thanks in part to a stronger average showtimes per location percentage hold this weekend
than last weekend, DC League of Super-Pets should continue to further stabilize this weekend. DC League of Super-Pets could decrease by just 28.6 percent to round out this weekend's top five with $5.0 million. |
| As for some of this weekend's other holdovers, Disney's Thor: Love and Thunder could decrease 29.3 percent to gross $3.8 million, Universal's Minions: The Rise of Gru could decline 28.0 percent to
follow closely behind with $3.6 million, fellow Universal release Nope could drop 36.6 percent to take in $3.4 million and Sony's Where the Crawdads Sing could slow by 27.5 percent for a weekend take of $2.9 million. And
with the aid of a major expansion from semi-wide to wide release this weekend, A24's Bodies Bodies Bodies could decline just 20.1 percent to gross $2.5 million. |
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Predictions for this weekend's top 10 films at the domestic box office.
| Rank | Film (Distributor) | Weekend Gross |
Total Gross |
% Change |
Week # |
| 1 | Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (Crunchyroll) |
$15.3 M | $15.3 M | NEW | 1 |
| 2 | Beast (Universal) |
$11.0 M | $11.0 M | NEW | 1 |
| 3 | Bullet Train (Sony / Columbia) |
$7.1 M | $68.1 M | -47% | 3 |
| 4 | Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount) |
$6.0 M | $683.5 M | -15% | 13 |
| 5 | DC League of Super-Pets (Warner Bros.) |
$5.0 M | $66.8 M | -29% | 4 |
| 6 | Thor: Love and Thunder (Disney) |
$3.8 M | $331.9 M | -29% | 7 |
| 7 | Minions: The Rise of Gru (Universal) |
$3.6 M | $350.2 M | -28% | 8 |
| 8 | Nope (Universal) |
$3.4 M | $113.6 M | -37% | 5 |
| 9 | Where the Crawdads Sing (Sony / Columbia) |
$2.9 M | $77.5 M | -28% | 6 |
| 10 | Bodies Bodies Bodies (A24) |
$2.5 M | $7.5 M | -20% | 3 |
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