1:59 pm PST 12/26/2020
in
Pamela McClintock
Breaking tradition amid the ongoing pandemic, Warner Bros. will not provide ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ numbers in the usual way until the end of the weekend.
Typically, a Hollywood studio would blow the trumpets if one of its films reached the top of the box office charts on Christmas Day, a busy time for going to the movies after the presents are unwrapped.
But this year – amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic – Warner Bros. is breaking the tradition of the industry and protecting recipes for Wonder Woman 1984 until Sunday, December 27th (Sony is doing the same with Monster hunter, which is entering its second weekend).
WW84, which debuted simultaneously on HBO Max and in US theaters on December 25, will undoubtedly win the holiday frame once the figures are revealed.
With the exception of Warners and Sony, other studios are reporting in the usual way via Comscore, the industry’s receptacle for real-time theater revenue.
Universal adult drama World News, directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Tom Hanks, opened at $ 1.1 million in 1,900 cinemas on Christmas Day.
Among the other films that dare to premiere on holiday amid the crisis of COVID-19 and re-theaters in cinemas, the special film by Focus Features A promising young woman Christmas Day started with an estimated $ 270,000 from 1,310 locations.
Both World News and Promising young woman are planting a flag in this year’s delayed prize race. Universal has room for maneuver to continue releasing movies in theaters because of its new premium VOD window, which allows a title to play at home 17 days or more after it hits the big screen.
After delaying the launch of WW84 numerous times because of the pandemic, Warner Bros. and controller WarnerMedia decided to break the movie window entirely and open the movie on the same day on HBO Max and any cinemas that remained open (or about 2,150 locations). Nearly 60% of US box offices are offline in terms of market share.
The sequel, which brings together director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot, should easily post the premiere of the first three days since the pandemic began with a number of teenagers. This would be a necessary victory considering the challenges faced at the box office, which drop 80% year after year.