`Bullet Train' stays on track, stays on top

The Brad Pitt action film “Bullet Train” led all movies in ticket sales for a second straight weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, while a quiet spell in theaters and incredible staying power allowed “Top Gun: Maverick” to rocket back into third place in its 12th week of release.

After launching the previous weekend with about $30 million at the box office, “Bullet Train” pulled in $13.4 million in its second go-around. David Leitch’s assassin-crowded film, made for $90 million, has grossed $54.4 million in two weeks for Sony Pictures. Globally, “Bullet Train” has grossed $114.5 million.

Three new films went into wide release but none cracked the top five films. The slowdown — an expected but still acute late-summer downturn in big releases — gave plenty of airspace for the year’s biggest movie, “Maverick,” to make another fly-by in theaters.

Nearly three months after opening in May, Paramount Pictures put the “Top Gun” sequel back on a number of largeformat screens and increased its theater count from 2,760 to 3,181. It came away with $7.2 million, bringing its cumulative total to $673.8 million. Paramount’s biggest smash ever, “Maverick” sits at seventh all-time in domestic box office, not accounting for inflation, right above “Titanic” and just below “Avengers: Infinity War.”

The uncommonly long run for “Top Gun: Maverick” is even rarer at a time when studios have shrunk theatrical windows, typically sending movies to streaming services after about 45 days in theaters.

“Top Gun: Maverick” was very narrowly edged for second place by Warner Bros.’ “DC League of Super-pets.” Warner Bros. estimated Sunday that its animated movie took in $7.17 million in its third week of release, just a nose above the $7.15 million for “Maverick.” Final figures today should break the near-tie.

But while “Top Gun: Maverick” has been a boon to theaters recovering from the pandemic, the thinly scheduled dog days of August — and potentially a chunk of September — will pose a test to the industry.

This weekend, the biggest new film in nationwide theaters was A24’s “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” a Gen Z horror comedy that expanded to 1,269 locations after last week’s opening in limited release. It came in eighth with $3.3 million.

Lionsgate’s “The Fall,” about two friends stranded atop a 2,000-foot radio tower, debuted with $2.5 million. Diane Keaton’s body-swap comedy “Mack & Rita” opened with just $1 million in ticket sales for Gravitas Ventures.

In overall sales it was the lowest ticket-selling weekend of the summer. With few new wide releases on tap moviegoing is likely to slow further in the coming weeks.