Movie-ticket sales fall to historic low
Here is all you need to know about the mindsets of moviegoers as the coronavirus pandemic intensifies: God beat a superhero at the weekend box office.
Seemingly every aspect of American life has been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, and the weekend ritual of watching a movie in the dark with strangers has been no exception. Most US cinemas remain open, with the two biggest chains, AMC and Regal, reducing seating capacity in auditoriums by 50% so that people could leave at least one empty seat between them.
But fears about the coronavirus kept the masses at home. Domestic ticket sales totalled about US$55.3 million (1.8 billion baht), a 44% drop from last weekend, despite three new films — Bloodshot, The Hunt and I Still Believe — arriving in wide release.
It was the worst period for movie theatres in two decades, according to Comscore, which compiles box office data. The next lowest weekend was Sept 15-17, 2000, when ticket sales totalled $54.5 million and the primary draws were holdovers like The Watcher,a
serial-killer movie, and Nurse Betty,a
dark comedy starring Renée Zellweger. In today’s money, however, the 2000 weekend generated roughly $83 million in ticket sales.
The result: Hollywood may have just had its worst weekend since ticketing data started to be independently compiled in the 1980s.
“This weekend’s three new wide releases were not expected to do big business,” David A. Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, a movie consultancy, said in an email on Sunday. “Still, these openings are down 30% or more from where they would be under normal circumstances.”
The No.1 movie was a holdover. Onward, the Disney-Pixar fantasy about two elf brothers who have an accident with magic, collected an estimated $10.5 million at 4,310 theatres in the United States and Canada — a 73% drop from its first weekend. Pixar movies typically decline between 30 and 45% from their first to second weekends, demonstrating the impact of coronavirus fears on moviegoing. Overseas, where theatres have been closed in some countries in Europe and Asia, Onward took in $6.8 million. The animated film’s global total now stands at $101.7 million, Disney said.
In a surprise — at least for Hollywood — an under-the-radar new release rooted in religion, I Still Believe, sold the most tickets of the newcomers. It collected about $9.5 million from 3,250 theatres. I Still Believe (Lionsgate and Kingdom Story) cost less than $10 million to make. A romantic drama, the film stars KJ Apa (Riverdale) and Britt Robertson (Under The Dome) and is based on the true story of Christian singer-songwriter Jeremy Camp and his first wife, Melissa Henning-Camp, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer while on their honeymoon.
Directed by Andrew Erwin and Jon Erwin, known for the 2018 faith-based hit I Can Only Imagine, I Still Believe received middling reviews. But ticket buyers gave it an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls. The superhero movie Bloodshot, starring Vin Diesel, played on 2,861 screens in the United States and Canada and collected an estimated $9.3 million. Sony, Bona Film Group and Cross Creek Pictures financed Bloodshot for about $45 million. The companies also spent tens of millions of dollars on marketing. Reviews were not kind, and it got a B grade from CinemaScore. Overseas, Bloodshot took in an additional $13 million. Russia was one of the stronger markets.
The Hunt (Universal and Blumhouse), a satirical horror film about elites killing “deplorables” that cost $15 million to make and tens of millions to market, collapsed with about $5.3 million in ticket sales. Reviews were mostly negative, and audiences gave the movie a C-plus grade in CinemaScore exit polls. The Hunt, starring the Emmy-nominated Betty Gilpin (Netflix’s Glow) and two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank, had originally been scheduled for release in September, but Universal cancelled that plan after 31 people were killed in back-to-back shootings in Texas and Ohio, and conservative pundits criticised the film’s premise as “sick”.