Things are looking up for the domestic box office.
In recent months, ticket sales have accelerated, a sign that moviegoers are ready to return to theaters. Encouraged by the trend, some studios have anticipated release dates.
Over the weekend, ticket sales reached about $ 24 million, which would be the best display since the pandemic forced cinemas to close about a year ago if those numbers hold when the final countdown comes in late. Monday.
The increase in sales comes as the United States continues with the robust launch of vaccines and states have begun to loosen restrictions on closed cinemas. Last Friday was the first time that New York cinemas were able to reopen in almost a year. Although Regal cinemas remain closed on the domestic market, AMC leases and several independent cinemas have reopened eagerly.
At the weekend, 45% of all North American cinemas were open, compared to 42% the previous weekend, according to data from Comscore.
“The way back will take some time,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “We didn’t get here overnight and we won’t see the industry’s recovery in a single weekend, but the building blocks of theatrical recovery are being put in place one by one.”
“Raya and the Last Dragon”, Disney’s first domestic theatrical release since March 2020, had a pre-opening, raising about $ 8.6 million over the three days. The film was released simultaneously on Disney + for an additional $ 30, but it is currently unknown how many chose to watch the film in streaming.
The film generated considerably less than the $ 14.1 million that “Tom & Jerry” grossed during its premiere the previous weekend. It should be noted that Cinemark chose not to show “Raya” in its 345 national cinemas due to a disagreement with Disney in the rental price.
“Tom & Jerry” raised an additional $ 6.6 million during the most recent weekend. These results, along with ticket sales for “Chaos Walking”, “Boogie” “The Croods: A New Age” and “Wonder Woman 1984”, helped boost the weekend’s box office results.
While the domestic box office is still a fraction of where it was at the beginning of last year. Still, the studios realized that there was a strong bump when there was a major studio release.
Over the Christmas weekend, the box office raised $ 23.8 million in ticket sales with the premiere of “Wonder Woman 1984” and “News of the World”. Then, on the weekend “Tom & Jerry” arrived, the box office hit $ 20.2 million.
These increases in ticket sales, combined with the opening of more cinemas and a wider distribution of vaccines, have given some studios the confidence to anticipate the release dates of major films.
In January, Warner Bros. led the group by positioning “Godzilla v. Kong” on March 31, reversing it from its May release date. Then, last week, Sony changed “Peter Rabbit” to May 14 from June and Paramount Pictures brought “A Quiet Place II” to May 28 from September.
“The studio’s confidence is critical and if this weekend was an indication, the industry is on the right track,” said Dergarabedian. “The theater market is waking up like a sleeping giant and slowly but surely we are seeing the signs of a renaissance at the box office.”
“2021, while still impacted by a limited percentage of open cinemas, may end up performing better than expected, even with release dates changing,” he said. “The fact that the studios are now changing titles for days and weeks instead of months is a great sign.”
Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe star in “A Quiet Place Part II”.
Paramount movies
Of course, there are still some titles that have been changed back. Universal’s “F9” postponed its Memorial Day weekend launch in favor of June 25 and the company’s animated feature film “Minions: Rise of Gru” was replaced until 2022.
It seems that Universal is trying to position the film, which has a production budget of $ 200 million, for a opening weekend as large as possible, both nationally and internationally. While the box office is recovering, putting the film even deeper in the summer may give him a better chance of selling more tickets.
Likewise, taking “Minions: The Rise of Gru” to 2022 allows Universal to guarantee a prominent date for its release and avoid the overcrowded 2021 calendar. The hope is that, by moving it for another year, the film, which as “F9” is about to perform well internationally, will capture significant ticket sales.
Both the Fast and Furious franchise and the Minions franchise have released billion-dollar films in recent years. Postponing these launches would put them on the right track to reach that mark again.
“Given a handful of overseas trends since last fall that, we believe, have helped demonstrate the underlying demand for cinema, as well as one of the most impressive blockbuster films scheduled for the next two years,” said Eric Wold, senior analyst at B Riley Securities in a note to investors on Monday. “We remain extremely optimistic about the potential for the United States box office environment, as other film markets reopen after New York City.”
The next big blockbuster to hit theaters will be “Godzilla v. Kong” on March 31. The film also hits HBO Max on the same day.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.