Welcome back, movie normalcy.
Sure, folks aren’t going back to the theaters in quite the numbers they were before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Indeed, cinemas are still hurting: A major theater chain says it may file for bankruptcy, and several other chains are trying to lure people back to the box office with a National Cinema Day—selling tickets for just $3.
But the summer of 2022 also saw the return of the blockbuster—and of the flop. And, as always, the numbers tell some interesting stories about what we want to see … and what we don’t.
First, let’s run down the summer’s biggest hits: Top Gun: Maverick remains both the season’s—and the year’s—biggest hit, having earned $691.2 million thus far in North America and a massive $1.4 billion worldwide. That...