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Title: America Has Biggest Three-Day Weekend Box Office Ever

Link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/0...

It's America's biggest box office for a Memorial Day weekend ever, reports
Variety. And it's been more than a decade since this many America's went to
see a movie during a three-day weekend... Families turned out in force for
Disney's live-action "Lilo & Stitch" remake, which collected a
blockbuster $145.5 million in its opening weekend and an estimated $183
million through Monday... Meanwhile, older audiences showed up to watch
Paramount and Skydance's "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning," which
earned a series-best $63 million over the weekend and an estimated $77
million through Monday's holiday. This eighth installment just narrowly beat
2018's "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" ($61 million) to score the top debut
of the 29-year-old franchise... Thanks to effective counterprogramming - and
a huge assist by holdovers like "Final Destination Bloodlines,"
"Thunderbolts*" and "Sinners" - this weekend delivered the best collective
Memorial Day weekend haul with $322 million... Cinema operators are rejoicing
because Memorial Day is the official launch to summer movie season, which is
the most profitable stretch for the movie business. (Historically, the four-
month period has accounted for $4 billion, or around 40% of the annual box
office.) It's a huge improvement from last year, which started with a whimper
rather than a bang as "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" and "Garfield" led the
holiday's worst showing in three decades with $132 million collectively.
"Every film on the release calendar for the rest of the summer is going to
benefit from the momentum created over this monumental record-breaking
Memorial weekend in theaters," says senior Comscore analyst Paul
Dergarabedian. But the top-earning movie of the year so far is A Minecraft
Movie, which has apparently brought in over $940 million. Meanwhile, Mission
Impossible: The Final Reckoning is one of the most expensive films of all
time, according to the article, costing $400 million as Tom Cruise and the
movie's director "worked through a pandemic and two strikes, all while
grappling with inflation." Though the film received a high "A-" grade on
CinemaScore, a movie industry analyst tells Variety that the unexpectedly
high production costs means the movie "will be lucky to break-even." Fun
fact: A quarter of a century ago, CmdrTaco reviewed a new movie called
Mission: Impossible 2, calling it "a fun movie," but "no Gladiator" and sort
of a "James Bond for Dummies" movie. "The 'Plot' is really just an excuse to
show us lots of explosions, car/motorcycle/helicoptor chases..."

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