March was worst Hollywood downturn in recent memory
LOS ANGELES: March is turning out to be Hollywood's worst downturn in recent memory.
The month's last hope at the US box office is Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One, which opens on Thursday, the eve of Easter weekend.
With less than a week to go, Hollywood's major March releases have failed to bloom at the North American box office, triggering the worst year- over-year decline for the month in recent memory.
March revenue through Sunday was an estimated US$ 722.5 million, a 28 per cent decline from the same time period last year ( US$ 997.3 million), according to comScore.
Last year, films released in March ultimately generated above US$ 1.2 billion in US ticket sales, led by Beauty and the Beast ( US$ 504 million), Logan ( US$ 226 million), The Boss Baby ( US$ 175 million) and Kong: Skull Island ( US$ 168 million). And in 2016, that same statistic was US$ 939 billion, fuelled by Zootopia ( US$ 341 million) and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (US$ 330.4 million).
While this year's crop of March titles are still in the heart of their runs, they won't match those numbers, considering not one title has come close to hitting US$ 100 million. And without carry- over revenue from February's Black Panther — as in US$ 200 millionplus — the situation would be even worse.
March offerings that have disappointed in 2018 include Legendary and Universal's Pacific Rim Uprising, which debuted over the weekend to US$ 28 million in North America against a US$ 155 million budget. The weekend before, Warner Bros. and MGM's Tomb Raider opened to an even worse US$ 23 million in the US. Both films are doing far better overseas, but that doesn't erase the blemish of a lacklustre domestic run.
Disney's A Wrinkle in Time, which opened on Mar 9, also has underwhelmed in a major way. The Ava DuVernay- directed family film has earned US$ 73.9 million to date in the US, and could have trouble getting to US$ 100 million. In past years, Disney has often dominated the March corridor, between Beauty and the Beast, Zootopia, Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland.
The saving grace has been Disney's and Marvel's Black Panther, which has grossed nearly US$ 631 million in North America since its mid-February debut.
“A reliance on one title — namely Black Panther — to do the heavy lifting while a host of newcomers over the past few weeks have faltered to one degree or another has resulted in a deficit situation that will take some time to reverse. Reboots and sequels are no guarantee of success, and at least a couple of recent examples will rely on their appeal outside of North America to put them into profitability,” wrote box- office analyst Paul Dergarabedian of comScore.
“What should have been March madness in the wake of a massive performance by Black Panther turned to box- office sadness,” Dergarabedian continued. “March has been a disappointing month that wasn't bolstered by a solid line- up of films that could compare to last year's stellar firstquarter slate.”