Months-old movies 'Top Gun' and 'Spider-Man' scored Labor Day weekend box office wins as theaters sold $3 tickets
- Older movies like "Top Gun" and "Spider-Man" beat some newer releases this Labor Day weekend.
- A re-release of "Jaws" also appeared in the top 10 during a typically slow holiday weekend.
"Top Gun: Maverick" and "Spider-Man: No Way Home," movies that were first released months ago, scored wins at the box office this Labor Day weekend, bolstered by a $3 ticket promotional deal meant to lure in moviegoers during a historically quiet weekend.
As of Monday morning, "Top Gun: Maverick," first released in May, topped the charts, grossing an estimated $7.9 million from Friday through Monday, Deadline reported. "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which originally came out in December 2021, was re-released as an extended cut. It came in third at the box office behind "Bullet Train," grossing $6.6 million over the 4-day period, according to data compiled by The Hollywood Reporter.
"Spider-Man" was initially projected to top the charts for the weekend but dropped to third as studios reported more data.
Another re-release success story from the weekend was "Jaws," which earned just over $3 million for the 4 days. "Jaws" first opened in theaters in 1975.
Movie attendance spiked over the weekend, bolstered by the industry's first "National Cinema Day," a one-day event that featured heavily discounted tickets at more than 3,000 movie theaters across the US. The $3 deal helped movie theaters break an attendance record for 2022, drawing in 8.1 million moviegoers.
Still, with few new movies at this point in the summer, industry insiders said the weekend was largely an opportunity for theaters to show previews of future releases to customers.
"August and September is typically a slow time," John Fithian, head of the theatre association, told Insider. "But people miss that there are good movies coming out in the fall. We have a lot of good stuff coming."