'Elvis' and 'Top Gun: Maverick' tie for top spot

In an unusually tight fight at the box office, "Elvis and 'Top Gun: Maverick' tied for the top spot in North America, with each film grossing $30.5 million over the weekend.

"Elvis" and "Top Gun: Maverick" were locked in a stalemate throughout the weekend as the King of Rock and Roll took first place on Friday and dropped to second on Saturday. The final results will be calculated on Monday.

Whichever film comes on top is a good result for both of them. For "Elvis," a $30 million debut for a film aimed at older audiences is impressive. For “Maverick,” it’s almost unheard of for a film to make $30 million in its fifth weekend of release.

Overall, it has been an encouraging weekend at the box office as five films are producing good results. Four - "Elvis" and another newcomer, Universal's Blumhouse thriller "The Black Phone", as well as Universal's remaining "Maverick" and "Jurassic World Dominion", each grossed $20 million or more, while the fifth, Disney's Pixar movie "Lightyear," came in close to $17 million.

"It's more than encouraging," said Jim Orr, Universal's president of home distribution. "It's a good sign that people really want to be back in theaters."

Also, these ticket sales will not be far from the pre-Covid estimates. These strong returns at the box office come when audiences reportedly feel more secure than going to their local cinema. According to a study by the National Research Group, 88% of moviegoers are "very or somewhat spontaneously" going to the cinema, a new all-time high. About a year ago, this percentage was close to 59 percent.

Baz Luhrmann created the "Elvis", a kaleidoscope version of the 20th century icon. Austin Butler stars in "Elvis", which chronicles the artist's meteoric rise through the eyes of his morally ambiguous manager, Colonel Tom Parker (played by Tom Hanks). Viewers dug the Warner Bros. film by giving it an "A-" CinemaScore.

Warner Bros. National Distribution President Jeff Goldstein says he is "absolutely thrilled" with the opening numbers for the weekend.

"There's something about the film that really resonates," Goldstein said on the Sunday morning call. "Word of mouth is really great."

At the international box office, "Elvis" opened to $50.5 million worldwide with $20 million from 51 markets.

David A. Gross, who runs film consultancy franchise Entertainment Research, called "Elvis" a "risky proposition" that is paying off.

“The music is out of date, the character isn’t directly familiar, and the lead actor hasn’t proven himself on the big screen. But critics and audiences are responding,” said Gross. Baz Luhrmann, a man of music, dance and sex appeal The show - it's a success."

Warner Bros. and Paramount will each calculate the final dollar and percentage to determine which movie ranks No. 1 by Monday. At the box office, ties for first place are rare, but it's even rarer that one of the two contenders has been playing in theaters for more than a month.

The nostalgia-filled sequel to 1986's "Top Gun" benefited greatly from stellar word-of-mouth, leading to a week-over-week decline. Now in its fifth weekend of release, "Maverick" added $30.5 million across 3,948 sites between Friday and Sunday, bringing its domestic total to $521 million. It was already the highest-grossing film of the year in the United States and Canada, but, after this weekend, it is also the highest-grossing film of the year at the global box office with revenues of ₹1.006 billion. of dollars. Notably, it is the first film of the year and only the second film to cross the $1 billion mark in the time of COVID (after Sony's $1.9 billion "Spider-Man: No Way Home"). Dollar.