Hollywood’s bountiful boxoffice buffet offered something for everyone over Thanksgiving but lacked the kind of knockout dish that steals the show.
Had Paramount/Skydance’s TOP GUN: MAVERICK stayed on 11/19 it could have added about $100M to Thanksgiving’s ticket sales and given the exhibition’s recovery a jet-propelled boost. Nonetheless, Comscore’s 3-day marketplace cume was a pandemic healthy $97.3M.
When it opens 5/27/22, TGM will have bounced around for over 3 years. Originally, it was to land on 7/12/19, but in August 2018, while still filming, Paramount pushed it to 6/26/20. In early April 2020, after COVID struck, TGM moved to 12/23/20.
By September 2020 the pandemic was far from over. TGM went to 7/2/21. Then, in April 2021, Paramount sent it to 11/19/21 as Thanksgiving’s centerpiece.
Paramount shocked exhibitors 9/1/21 with word that TGM would now open 5/27/22. That news came 2 days before SHANG-CHI‘s opening, so Paramount certainly would have waited to see what happened (a $75.4M launch!) if it was worrying about domestic moviegoing. TGM’s fifth move likely reflected fears about theatres overseas still suffering from pandemic pressures.