Summer box office winners & losers

Hollywood isn’t out of the woods just yet.

The summer movie season claimed a colossal winner with “Top Gun: Maverick,” which flew higher than anyone expected possible, collecting $685 million at the domestic box office, enough to make it the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time. And it’s not finished yet: Despite being released on digital platforms this week, it’s still in theaters and has a good shot at eclipsing the $700 million mark, where it would surpass “Black Panther” and claim the No. 5 spot on that all-time list.

There were other huge successes, too — the Marvel entries “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” ($411 million) and “Thor: Love and Thunder” ($333 million) did what Marvel entries do, while the latest “Jurassic World” ($374 million) and “Minions” ($351 million) movies proved the worth of their respective franchises — but just below the top level, there were major signs of distress.

Here’s a look back at the winners and losers of the 2022 summer movie season.

WINNER: “Top Gun: Maverick”

All hail Tom Cruise. He insisted that “Top Gun: Maverick” be held back from release until people were ready to return to theaters. Not only was he was right, but he gave them a reason to return with this thrilling sequel to the 1986 film, which made him a global megastar. “Maverick” was the big-screen, good-time, popcorn-chomping action flick the world needed after two years of COVID madness. It became the biggest hit of Cruise’s career and a model for how to deliver on expectations. Next up is “Mission: Impossible 7,” which hits theaters next July. It will determine if Cruise can do the impossible once again.

LOSER: “Lightyear”

A Buzz Lightyear standalone film should have been an unqualified slam dunk. But Pixar’s prequel was a muddled mess, with a confusing storyline (wait, so this is the movie that “Toy Story’s” Andy watched that made him a Buzz Lightyear fan?) and a decided lack of Pixar magic. Word of mouth was poor, and box office suffered (just $118 million, or around $316 million less than 2019’s “Toy Story 4”). This one landed somewhere well short of infinity and beyond.

WINNER: Marvel box office

The numbers say Marvel is as strong as ever: “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” outgrossed its predecessor by $180 million and became the eighth-highest-grossing Marvel movie, while the fourth “Thor” movie became the top-grosser of the “Thor” series. Next up is “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” in November, which has the potential to become both a box office monster and an emotional farewell to Chadwick Boseman, the original “Black Panther” star who died unexpectedly in 2020. Things are good for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it would seem.

LOSER: Marvel storytelling

Even if the box office is strong, response to recent Marvel movies has been more muted than usual. “Multiverse of Madness” and “Love and Thunder” are both among the worst-reviewed Marvel movies — according to Rotten Tomatoes, they sit at Nos. 25 and 28, respectively, on the list of the 29 Marvel movies — as signs of fatigue have begun to show in the MCU. Marvel has plans mapped out through 2025, when a pair of new “Avengers” movies are set to be released. That will be a lot to slog through if these storytelling screws aren’t tightened up.

WINNER: “Elvis”

Baz Luhrmann’s take on the life of Elvis Presley hit theaters in June and just barely beat “Top Gun: Maverick” for that weekend’s box office crown, with a $31 million opening take. But rather than falling off a cliff, it hung around at the box office, proving its staying power and eventually legging out $145 million in receipts. Hollywood is often focused on first-weekend returns and youth, but the success of “Elvis” shows the strength of adult audiences who aren’t always in a rush to see something, but will get around to it when they get around to it, and their money spends just as well as first-weekend dollars.

LOSER: Mid-range movies

There once was a time when a movie star vehicle like “Bullet Train” ($71 million to date) or an adaptation of a super-popular novel like “Where the Crawdads Sing” ($79 million) could easily eke out $100 million-plus at the box office, but not this summer. Rather than spreading the wealth around, the hits were big and the rest of the slate was left fighting for scraps. There were some mid-tier hits worth touting, such as the horror entry “The Black Phone,” which pulled in $89 million, and Jordan Peele’s “Nope,” which scared up $115 million. Mostly, however, the gap between the haves and the have-nots just grew bigger this summer.

WINNER: Movie theaters

“Top Gun: Maverick” would not have been the same at home, released on Paramount+. This was a movie you wanted to go see on as big a screen as possible with as large of a Coke as possible with as many friends as possible. Inviting your friends over and watching it on your living room TV would not have been as fun. Heck, Tom Cruise even thanked audiences for coming to theaters before the start of the movie. That kind of big, loud, exhilarating experience was one only theaters could deliver, and there was no better advertisement for the return of theaters than Cruise’s mega-blockbuster.

LOSER: Movie theaters

Sadly, there was only one “Top Gun: Maverick” to go around. For five consecutive weeks between June and July, films earning less than $1 million slipped into the box office Top 10; the weekend of June 17-19, the British comedy “Brian and Charles” made the Top 10 with just $216,000. Part of the problem is COVID-related. Studios didn’t have enough movies to fill the summer schedule, and the number of movies released in more than 2,000 theaters fell 43 percent compared to 2019, the last year before the pandemic. Grosses have been off accordingly, with year-to-date sales down 32 percent vs. 2019.

WINNER: Streaming services

People got used to streaming movies at home during the pandemic, and streaming services continue to pump out new product every week, from star vehicles (Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg in “Me Time”) to festival hits (“Cha Cha Real Smooth,” on Apple TV+) to franchise fare (the acclaimed “Predator” entry “Prey”). Not all of it is good, but the buy-in at home is much smaller, and it’s a lot easier to toss something on at home at the end of a long day than it is to trudge out to the theater, sit through 25 minutes of previews and hope that the guy in the row in front of you isn’t on his phone or laughing too loudly when he shouldn’t be. If something isn’t working at home, you can just turn it off, and you don’t feel like you’re being ripped off. For movie fans, there are no shortage of options at home.

LOSER: Arthouses

If it’s tough for movie chains and megaplexes right now, it’s even tougher for arthouses: They’re fighting with streamers for content and playing to ever-more specialized (read: small) audiences. And with few indie hits to tout, it’s no wonder that havens of independent cinema aren’t playing hits, but are being hit — by the wrecking ball.