‘Nobody’ theater debut tops Disney’s ‘Raya’
The Universal Pictures thriller Nobody reached the top spot at the box office, generating better-than-expected ticket sales and ending the dominance of Walt Disney Co.’s Raya and the Last Dragon.
The movie, starring Bob Odenkirk as a man seeking revenge for a burglary, generated $6.7 million in domestic ticket sales in its debut weekend, slightly higher than analysts had predicted, according to data from industry researcher Comscore Inc.
The film benefited from the ongoing reopening of theaters in Los Angeles and New York, which both recently got the green light to resume operations after a yearlong hiatus.
The Nobody outperformance is a boost to the movie business, which is still struggling with the effects of the yearlong COVID-19 pandemic.
It also suggests that moviegoers are ready to embrace some genres that they’ve mostly opted to watch on streaming services recently. Most of the more successful theatrical releases this year were for family films, including Raya and Warner Bros.’ Tom & Jerry.
“With the success of Nobody, there is brewing a much-welcomed return to normalcy in terms of the ability of an adult drama to draw audiences to the multiplex,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at Comscore. “This represents a shift of focus from the family films that have been a dominant force.”
Raya, which is also available for purchase on Disney+ and was No. 1 at the box office for three straight weeks, had another $3.5 million in domestic tickets over the weekend. Tom & Jerry, which debuted in February, generated $2.5 million in sales.
The international box office also performed well over the weekend. Warner’s action film Godzilla vs. Kong, which is set for release in the U.S. in theaters and on HBO Max on Wednesday, became the biggest foreign title to open in China in either 2020 and 2021, surpassing the performance of Tenet. It made about $122 million in foreign ticket sales across 56,777 screens, according to the studio.
Still, the business has a long way to go.
About half of U.S. cinemas remain closed, and some chains are opting to preserve cash while they wait for more big titles to be released.
The second-largest U.S. chain, Regal Theatres, reopens some locations starting Friday.