Graphic by Cameron Harbridge
Labor Day weekend featured a new box office leader. Denzel Washington reprised his role as Robert McCall in “The Equalizer 3”, the third film in the franchise helmed by director Antoine Fuqua. It dominated the box office, grossing $43 million over the four-day weekend. This total amounted to the second highest-grossing film released on Labor Day behind the 2021 release of “Shang-Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings.”
“Gran Turismo” suffered a big drop to the No. 4 position, pulling in only $9 million over the holiday weekend. While “Gran Turismo” dropped, “Barbie” maintained the No. 2 position and became the highest grossing film of the year. “Barbie” surpassed “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” for the title, reaching over $600 million domestically and over $1.3 billion worldwide. It pulled in another $13 million over this past weekend.
“Oppenheimer” and “Blue Beetle” rounded out the top five, with “Oppenheimer” pulling in another $8 million and crossing the $850 million mark worldwide. It has now become Universal’s highest grossing R-rated film domestically. Only time will tell if the film can hit $1 billion.
The summer box office also climbed over $4 billion domestically for the first time since 2019. The coronavirus pandemic tanked the 2020 summer gross down to only $71 million, the worst summer box office since 1976. Signs of life were seen in 2021 and 2022, with $1.7 and $3.4 billion summers respectively. This summer was nearly on track to the years before the pandemic, with 2013 being the highest grossing summer on record with a $4.7 billion gross.
The fall has lost some of its big films as many have moved their release dates due to the Hollywood strikes. We may potentially see “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” in theaters for a while longer.
SZNS MAG 