Movie fans return to theaters in L.A.
Disney’s animated adventure “Raya and the Last Dragon” led the domestic box office in its third weekend, illustrating the appeal of family films as Hollywood attempts to mount a moviegoing revival.
“Raya and the Last Dragon” collected $5.2 million from 2,261 theaters through Sunday, representing a scant 5% decline. Disney can thank the reopening of Los Angeles movie theaters for the stellar hold in ticket sales. Cinemas in the City of Angels were given permission to resume operations on March 12, but most film exhibitors weren’t able to get up and running until now.
Capacity in Los Angeles area movie theaters will be capped at 25%, or 100 people per auditorium, which is double the limit in New York, where its restricted to 50 people. Even with restrictions, Los Angeles accounted for nearly 9% of all movie tickets sold this weekend, according to Comscore.
“This weekend showed solid results from holdovers, demonstrating the revenue generating horsepower of opening the biggest box-office market in North America,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst with Comscore.
“Eager movie fans in Los Angeles showed up in solid numbers to enjoy the big screen experience once again.”
AMC Theatres, the cinema chain with the biggest footprint in the country, had reopened 98% of its locations, including 40 venues in California, as of Friday. The circuit expects to reopen even more locations by this Friday.
“It was exactly one year ago that we closed all AMC locations in the United States,” said Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC. “It gives me immense joy to say that by the end of next week we expect that 99% of our U.S. locations will have reopened.”
“Raya and the Last Dragon” amassed another $8 million overseas from 29 countries. The film, which is available to Disney Plus subscribers for an additional $30, has generated $71 million globally to date.
Two new movies — “The Courier” and “City of Lies” — opened theatrically, while several awards season hopefuls got a post-Oscar nomination boost.