“A big movie like this with a lot of expectations should have had a stronger debut,” says Jeff Bock, senior media analyst at Exhibitor Relations. “That said, there isn’t much competition in August, so ‘Bullet Train’ should have a good window to make its mark in the coming weeks.” “Bullet Train” tries to prove that an action movie that doesn’t rely on a familiar property can defy the odds and resonate with audiences. But part of the point about the film is that the critics weren’t on board. “Bullet Train” garnered a mediocre 54% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics accusing the film of being overly derivative. Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge weighed in on “Bullet Train,” writing that “neither the characters nor the film they inhabit are particularly deep.” “Bullet Train” was directed by David Leitch, who once served as a stuntman for Pitt before moving on to oversee “Atomic Blonde” and “Deadpool 2.” It centers on a hapless assassin whose mission to catch a suitcase full of cash on a high-speed train in Japan escalates into double crosses and brutal battles with an army of rival assassins, thieves and social misfits. Universal and Amblin’s “Easter Sunday,” the weekend’s other major release, stumbled in its first frame, earning a meager $5.3 million for eighth place on the domestic charts. “Easter Sunday” stars stand-up comic Jo Koy as an actor who attends his dysfunctional Filipino-American family’s Easter Sunday celebration. The good news for Universal and Amblin is that “Easter Sunday” was a modest bet, coming in at $17 million. Comedies, once a reliable draw, have struggled at the box office in recent years. In fact, “Easter Sunday” is the only major studio comedy to hit theaters this summer, a sign of how much the genre has fallen in popularity. “DC League of Super-Pets,” an animated offering from Warner Bros., came in second with $11.2 million. After two weeks, “Super-Pets” boasts a domestic gross of $45.1 million, a disappointing result given its $90 million production budget. Under its new corporate owner, Warner Bros. Discovery is looking to shake up its cinematic universe of DC Comics characters, a change of course that resulted in the company’s controversial decision this week to scrap “Batgirl” after the movie wrapped. Instead of debuting on HBO Max as originally planned or being retrofitted for a theatrical release, the film will now become a tax write-off. Universal’s “Nope” came in third with $8.5 million. That brings Jordan Peele’s UFO thriller to $97.9 million at the domestic box office, an impressive result for a film that didn’t come from a pre-existing piece of IP. Disney and Marvel’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” and Universal and Illumination’s “Minions: Rise of Gru” rounded out the top five, earning $7.6 million and $7.1 million, respectively. That brings the MCU adventure’s total to $316.1 million, while the “Despicable Me” spinoff has now earned $334.6 million domestically. In limited release, “Bodies Bodies Bodies” grossed $226,526 on 6 screens in New York and Los Angeles, averaging $37,754 per screen. The A24 horror film follows a group of wealthy 20-somethings on a whirlwind party at a remote family mansion that becomes the site of several bloodbaths. The ensemble cast includes former “SNL” star Pete Davidson, “The Hate U Give’s” Amandla Stenberg and “Borat 2” breakout Maria Bakalova. On the milestone front, Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick” has now replaced “Titanic” as the seventh-biggest film of all time at the domestic box office, earning $662 million in ticket sales. The sequel, now in its eleventh week of release, added $7 million to its total. The film is the most successful release of Tom Cruise’s career and, thanks to a lucrative profit-sharing pact, is set to leave him over $100 million richer. The domestic box office has seen an impressive recovery in recent months. is a revival fueled by hits like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Jurassic World Dominion.” The bad news for theaters is that “Bullet Train” is the last big-budget, big-box studio movie this summer, and there’s going to be a veritable wasteland in terms of box-office hits. Studio executives and theater owners privately say there won’t be another big hit until “Black Adam” opens on Oct. 21 or “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” on Nov. 11. That’s a long time to wait, particularly for an exhibition industry that’s still trying to shake off the lingering impact of COVID shutdowns and reduced attendance. “We have to manage expectations,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for ComScore. “The next three months will not be like the previous three months. It will be a long time before we have another blockbuster.”
