Tom Cruise’s new massive hit, Top Gun: Maverick, took the No. 1 spot at the U.S. box office for the second straight weekend, selling another $86 million, upping the film’s 10-day domestic sales total to a whopping $291 million. 

So far, the film has not only made $549 million worldwide, but has received some of the loudest acclaim and word-of-mouth of any film of recent memory. 

I have a maybe-bold prediction, and I’m going to make it without having seen the film: Top Gun: Maverick will be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar next year. It won’t win, but it’ll win the Oscar for sound editing and Cruise will be a part of the ceremony in some way. 

Can’t wait to see this one. Sounds delightful.

Also at the box

Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness took the No. 2 spot at the box office during its fifth weekend of release, selling another $9.2 million and upping its worldwide sales to a remarkable $909 million. Whoa. What if Sam Raimi ends up with a film that eclipses $1 billion? 

The Bob’s Burgers Movie took the No. 3 spot at the box office over its third weekend, selling another $4.5 million. The animated film has made $22 million over 10 days. Sounds about right. 

Rounding out last weekend’s top five were The Bad Guys (No. 4 with $3.4 million in sales) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (No. 5 with just under $3 million in sales). 

New this week

This weekend will be all about one film, Jurassic World: Dominion, not just because it has had one of the biggest marketing budgets any film has ever seen, but because, well, dinosaurs. 

The summer blockbuster was directed by Colin Trevorrow, his second Jurassic film and fifth feature. This one will be a bit of a comeback for the director, who was replaced by J.J. Abrams while directing 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. 

Anyhow, this flick will be huge. Massive. It’ll almost certainly take the No. 1 spot away from Cruise.

ScreenRant 

While Cruise was dominating the weekend box office, David Cronenberg’s first film in a billion years, Crimes of the Future, played on 773 screens over its debut weekend, selling just $1.1 million. Bummer. 

As a longtime Cronenberg lover, it hurts to see him come out of semi-retirement to make a passion project and have it be virtually ignored. I’ll be checking it soon, and can’t wait to do so.

Cronenberg is one of the great filmmakers of my lifetime, and maybe even the pride of Canada for cinephiles. Rather than rant endlessly about why I love Cronenberg and his films, I’m just going to offer up a list of my favorite films by him. Because this is ScreenTime, and that’s what we do:

1. The Fly (A+; 1986)

2. Videodrome (A+; 1983)

3. A History of Violence (A+; 2005)

4. Maps to the Stars (A+; 2014)

5. Eastern Promises (A+; 2007)

6. Dead Ringers (A; 1988)

7. Crash (A-; 1996)

8. Naked Lunch (A-; 1991)

9. A Dangerous Method (A-; 2011)

10. The Dead Zone (B+; 1983)

And those are just my 10 personal favorites. All classics in my book. 

Send your Cronenberg Top 10 my way at gregwlocke@gmail.com.