The Disney catalog joined Universal’s this weekend in playing whatever theaters were open at the box office as the majority of exhibition’s 5,9K theaters remain shuttered nationwide due to COVID-19.
Overall, ticket sales continued to be distressed. Disney’s 2016 Oscar-winning hit Zootopia took the top spot with an estimated $280K, putting its liftime total at $341.5M, while the studio’s Marvel Joss Whedon directed 2012 blockbuster The Avengers filed second with an estimated $260K and a running lifetime gross of $623.5M. Both pics’ takes were off from the $517K and $516K respectively made by Universal’s respective re-releases of Jurassic Park and Jaws last weekend. While Disney has had Onward in release since mid-March during the COVID-19 period, this is the first weekend we’ve seen their catalog titles, including 20th Century’s The Greatest Showman hitting marquees.
Also cracking the top 10 was Focus Features’ Jon Stewart-directed political comedy Irresistible which played at 238 venues grossing $100K. The Steve Carell-Rose Byrne-Chris Cooper comedy was also available to rent in homes. Carell plays a Democratic campaign consultant (Carell) who helps a retired Marine colonel (Cooper) run for mayor in a small Wisconsin town. Stewart also wrote and produced with Lila Yacoub and Plan B Entertainment’s Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner also producing. The pic clocked a 41% Rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes. Focus’ other theatrical-VOD release, The High Note, has grossed over $420K through five weekends.
Prevalent throughout the weekend box office were catalog titles, not just from Universal, but Warner Bros. (The Goonies, Batman, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) and Paramount (Grease, the Indiana Jones movies, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Footloose), but once you sink past the top 10, the grosses are pretty horrible.
I’m told that 1,100 theaters remain up and running, with drive-ins still numbering 300 and driving the bulk of the weekend’s ticket sales. Of the top 135 grossing theaters, 104 of them were drive-ins. I’ve also been told by sources that the top grossing venues are such drive-ins as the Ford Wyoming in Dearborn, MI; the Sacramento 6, the Cine-Drive in Saint Eustache, Quebec; the Cine-Parc Mont St-Hilaire also in Quebec and the Capitol 6 Drive-in in San Jose, CA. Hard tops are still struggling, not one making north of $20K for the weekend.
The hope was for big exhibition to be up and running and testing the waters this coming weekend with Solstice Studios’ Unhinged and with coronavirus cases on the rise, state and county authorities have become even tougher about cinemas reopening; now delayed to the last two weeks of July. We’ll see about that.
Below’s top 10 is based on industry estimates, not studio-reported:
1..Zootopia (Dis) 393 theaters, 3-day: $280K, lifetime cume: $341.5M/Wk no. 226
2…The Avengers (Dis) 417 theaters, 3-day: $260K, lifetime cume: $623.5M/wk. no. 426
3..Jurassic Park (Uni) 232 (+2) theaters, 3-day: $190K (-63%),lifetime cume: $404.5M /wk no. 1,412
4..The Greatest Showman (20th) 342 theaters, 3-day: $170K, cume $174.4M/Wk 132
5..The Hunt (Uni) 96 (+1) theaters, 3-day: $150K (+10%), cume: $8.5M/Wk 16
6. The Invisible Man (Uni/Blumhouse) 154 (-3) theaters, 3-day: $138,5K (-31%), cume $70.6M/Wk 18
7..Trolls World Tour (Uni) 289 (–) theaters 3-day: $138K (-14%), cume: $4.3M/Wk 12
8…Jaws (Uni) 163 theaters (-24), 3-day: $124K (-76%), lifetime cume: $264M/wk. no. 2,350
9..Bloodshot (Sony) 106 theaters (–) 3-day: $111K (+36%), cume: $11.1M/Wk 16
10..Irresistible (Foc) 238 theaters (+34) 3-day: $100K/Wk 1