The end of August is typically when the wheels come off blockbuster season, but Bullet Train has at least managed to repeat at the top of the charts after hauling in a slightly stronger than expected second weekend haul of $13.1 million.
Unfortunately, the downside is that this frame ranks as the first time since February that only a single movie in the Top 10 has scored a double-digit gross across the three days, with none of the new wide releases managing to make it any higher than the eighth place finish of A24’s expanding Bodies Bodies Bodies.
If there’s one highlight to be gleaned from an otherwise weak weekend, then the plaudits should be pointed once again at Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick. Despite having been playing on the big screen for no less than 12 weeks, Joseph Kosinski’s sequel has moved up to second place, and it’s virtually destined to secure at least one more major milestone before bowing out.
With a cumulative gross of almost $674 million in the bank, Maverick will surpass Avengers: Infinity War‘s $678 million sometime next week to become the sixth highest-grossing domestic hit of all-time. Hell, given the relative dearth of high-profile competition coming over the next month or so, don’t be surprised if the aerial extravaganza remains hovering in and around the Top 10 for a long time to come.
Once again, then, the headlines will belong to Bullet Train and Top Gun: Maverick, with the repetitiveness oddly fitting for an underwhelming end to a lucrative summer season that took the box office to heights it hadn’t experienced since 2019.
