Business as usual at box office amid concerns over coronavirus
LOS ANGELES — North American audiences are not staying away from theaters amid virus concerns, according to the weekend’s box office numbers. Disney and Pixar’s “Onward” topped the charts as expected and the Ben Affleck basketball drama “The Way Back” also opened normally.
“Onward” earned $40 million from 4,310 North American locations, according to studio estimates on Sunday. It’s on the lower end of openings for the studio, more in line with “The Good Dinosaur’s” launch in 2015. “Onward” is an original story about two teenage elf brothers voiced by Chris Pratt and Tom Holland who get a chance to spend one last day with their late father.
“I think it’s a solid start for an original animated film,” said Cathleen Taff, Disney’s president of distribution. “We’re especially excited about the fact that we’ve seen such good word of mouth.”
The studio expects it to continue performing well with spring breaks starting for many students and families next week.
Internationally, “Onward” picked up $28 million. Disney noted that outside of Asia-Pacific regions, coronavirus concerns have not made a material impact on earnings.
The weekend overall is down some 50% from the same weekend last year, but that’s only because that’s when “Captain Marvel” opened to over $153 million, and not any indication of the market taking a hit, said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
The rest of the charts also looked normal, even with recent virus-related shake-ups in the entertainment industry, including the cancellation of the South by Southwest festival and the decision to push back the release of the new James Bond film “No Time to Die” from April to November.
Universal and Blumhouse’s “The Invisible Man” dropped to second place in week two with $15.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $52.7 million. Worldwide, it’s just shy of $100 million.
In third place, Warner Bros.’ “The Way Back” opened in line with projections with an estimated $8.5 million. The R-rated drama cost around $21 million to produce.
Affleck’s performance was well-received by critics, and the star has been unusually candid about his own real-life struggles with alcoholism in the press in the weeks leading up to release.
“It’s a very specific drama,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.’ president of domestic distribution. “Ben Affleck did a great job and the reviews back that up.”
Audiences, who skewed older (64% were over the age of 35), gave the film a B+ CinemaScore. Goldstein noted that the audience age broadened over the weekend.
He also hasn’t seen any significant impact of the virus on the North American box office yet.