Culture Crash: The Box Office Boom

I don’t want to oversell things here, but the box office is sort of booming right now. After months and years of wondering if movie theaters could survive or if people will ever want to venture out to theaters in a COVID-19 world. The answer seems to be yes. Of course Spider-Man and Batman already proved people will return for the right kind of entertainment, but now there is a track record of theatrical success outside of just superheroes.

Top Gun: Maverick is the biggest movie of the year so far, as it has become Tom Cruise’s first-ever $1 billion grosser. But Jurassic World did good business, too, and Everything Everywhere All At Once was something of a summer surprise, having made almost $65 million for A24 in America alone. And now Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis is in theaters, and while it won’t do Spider-Man or Top Gun money, it is proving that there is still a decent audience for filmmaking geared for adults in a non-comic book setting.

As a movie enthusiast, this is all very welcome news. For years during the pandemic, many of us worried if movies could be a dying art form. The latest box office returns suggest… that may have been premature. Movies: they never went anywhere, but they’re definitely back. It’s good to be home.