‘The Little Things’ Denzel Washington Rami Malek Pic leads pandemic box office – deadline

Late Sunday morning: If you’re looking for some exciting financial action to get out of the movie business, it’s not at the box office, but on the stock exchange, especially last week’s boom for No. 1 AMC exhibitor.

The continued closure of cinemas during Covid-19, with only 45% of all 5,800 US and Canadian cinemas open, yielded the Warner Bros. thriller. Denzel Washington-Rami Malek The little things last weekend, which only opened for $ 4.8M in 2,171 cinemas, the best for a censored movie and for older guys during the pandemic. In all world, The little things done $ 7.6 million, with money from 20 markets, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.

However, even though there are not many people passing through theaters, including network # 1 AMC, that exhibitor crowned a wild week, seeing his market capitalization rise to $ 4.5 billion and the closing price of his shares almost rise 300% per week- during the week on Friday at $ 13.26. This is after a dispute between investors who sell short and buyers from the Reddit investor group. The stock market was so good for AMC that its notable shareholder, Silver Lake, pulled out on Friday, converting $ 600 million into the exhibitor’s debt into shares and then selling those shares at a considerable profit.

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Small things’ The 3-day weekend represents a high point in a low-ceiling market since August for older guy prices, surpassing Solstice Studios’ Unbalanced ($ 4M opening), Focus Features’ Let him go ($ 4 million), Liam Neeson films from Open Road Honest thief and The shooter (respectively $ 4.1 million and $ 3.1 million), and Universal World News ($ 2.25 million). Warners marks his Small things remarkable opening in sync with the simultaneous release of the photo on HBO Max. We will evaluate the whole experiment again soon, as a new intelligence was launched last week.

As for the exhibition landscape, while newly elected US President Joe Biden seeks to inoculate the entire nation until the summer, Illinois and Chicago reopened theaters last weekend. Boston is reopening with 25% capacity limits starting on Monday. The city’s theaters have not been lit since well before mid-December. AMC Boston Common and South Dorchester will reopen on February 5. Seattle will reopen some cinemas next weekend. According to sources, to date, close to 2K cinemas have not provided a reopening date. In relation to the capitals of BO, New York has just over 20% of all open theaters, while California has just over 5%.

We still have a long way to go, and with the studios delaying the product, even if they’re selling a lot in the beginning, I must think that they continue to believe in the proven revenue generation system for theatrical showcases – even if physical media is moving. retiring and streaming is growing. Regarding all this controversial strategy to launch the simultaneous HBO Max in 2021, AT&T chief John Stankey was on defense during a call in the fourth quarter, claiming – and it is difficult to argue with him – that “the data points have arrived and are consistent with the assumptions, ”which means that Warners was correct about how the market would suck the wind for a while, as more studios left the first half of the year (that is, we look forward to the return of the cinema).

There were other highlights coming from the 31-day game Wonder Woman 1984 on the fledgling streaming service HBO Max and in theaters: the number of subscribers to the Q4 HBO Max doubled to 17.4 million and Nielsen reported that watching Gal Gadot DC directed by Patty Jenkins was a monster during the holiday season during December 21 Runner 27, with 2.25 billion minutes of streaming, crushing Disney + ‘s Soul by 35%.

However, with all those horns blaring, it remains to be seen whether AT&T is making any money from this WarnerMedia experiment. It can be a good form of marketing for the streaming service in the short term and a means of increasing the number of subscribers during the pandemic by accessing the inventory that is out there. But where’s the money? Especially on an image-by-image basis?

WW1984 raised just $ 152 million WW with a production cost of $ 200 million, not including spending on P&A. The streak came in third place on its 6th weekend with $ 1.3 million and current domestic revenue of $ 39.2 million. I continue to beat the drum that WarnerMedia should have forwarded product image by image to HBO Max in response to the pandemic, compared to this automatic move.

As such statistics came out this week, AT&T’s fourth-quarter expenses, including about $ 780 million “from loss of production and other WarnerMedia content inventory”, with $ 520 million “resulting from the continuous shutdown of cinemas during the pandemic and the hybrid distribution model for our 2021 slate film ”, reported telecom.

How did Small things to do on HBO Max? We don’t know specifically, in terms of numbers, with Andy Forssell, EVP and general manager of HBO Max bragging: “We are absolutely thrilled with the way Warner Bros. ‘ The little things is performing at HBO Max – immediately moved up to number one, where he currently remains. After the great success of Wonder Woman 1984, The little things shows the insatiable appetite that our audience has for high quality feature films. “

At CinemaScore, the audience was not impressed with Small things, giving a B-, which is lower for Washington in its action thriller genre, compared to the A received by Washington’s Equalizer 2 and A- of Equalizer, B + de 2 weapons, and A- of Safe house. Some will try to defend that CinemaScore is not working with the same audience size as during a normal market. But an audience score is an audience score, and the Comscore / Screen Engine PostTrak shows 67% less positive and 40% recommended. Those who bought tickets where the theaters were open were 55% male, about 80% over 25 years old, with about 60% over 35 years old. Caucasians represent 47% of ticket buyers, African Americans 29%, Hispanics 17% and 7% Asians / others. Critics of Rotten Tomatoes were not amused Small things by 48% rotten, but they didn’t enjoy Washington’s Equalizer photos too, part 1 and 2 getting a low 59% and 51% rotten.

About Small things’ marketing, RelishMix noted that Warner Bros. “Used a short catwalk, Covid-centric tactic, launch date and day / day data, taking advantage of the studio’s social channels with a 53.8 million SMU social media universe cross-promoted with HBO Max channel social with the emerging 1.8M SMU – and circumvented the tradition of growing new pages dedicated to the film. The Warner Bros. Facebook with 34.3 million fans connected and, although only one trailer, the post was robust in the last 3 weeks, with moderate involvement for Facebook views of just over 500 thousand. But well-propelled materials on YouTube have just surpassed 20 million views for their own posts and earned and reposted, which is strong. Jared Leto’s super social channels (33.1M SMU) for him and his feeds from the band 30 Seconds To Mars are bringing the SMU social media universe to 109.5 million, which is good for the drama / suspense genre. “

Despite WarnerMedia’s recent streaming love affair, RelishMix points out: “On WBPictures’ Instagram, they want to send a clear message from where you can see the movie on the big screen.”

Main markets for Small things were 1. Dallas-Ft. Worth, 2. Phoenix, 3. Houston, 4. Greater New York Metro area (NJ, CT and Long Island / theaters in upstate NY), 5. Chicago, 6. Atlanta, 7. Denver, 8. Salt Lake City, 9 Tampa, 10. Orlando.

The 10 locations in the photo last weekend were: 1. Harkins Estrella Falls Phoenix, 2. West Wind Sacramento Drive-In, 3. AMC Disney Springs Orlando, 4. Santikos Casa Blanca San Antonio, 5. iPic River Oaks District Houston , 6. Santikos Palladium San Antonio, 7. West Wind Solano Twin Drive-In (Concord, CA), 8. West Wind Capitol Drive-In (San Jose, CA), 9. Cinemark North Canton (Ohio), 10. AMC Thoroughbred Nashville.

In the meantime, applause here for Universal, which continues to see its DreamWorks Animation Croods: a new era always stay afloat at the weekend box office, even if it’s on PVOD. It just shows that families in the parts of the country where theaters are open prefer to go to the movies for fun. The resource is + 2% on weekend 10, in the second position with $ 1.84M, and a domestic market of $ 43.9 million, with foreign footage going from $ 100 million to $ 144.4 million WW. In the recent DEG end-of-year report, Universal estimated that the 18 films it launched on PVOD in the past 10 months generated more than $ 500 million in revenue from $ 30 billion in home entertainment in 2020, + 21% in compared to 2019.

Comscore shows, starting this morning, the weekend box office earning $ 13.1 million, + 52% over the last weekend, but well below 84% over the same weekend in 2020. The the first month of 2021 raised only $ 70.5 million at the domestic box office, 92% of the $ 906.6 million that 2020 accumulated pre-pandemic. Damn it.

The top 10 chart from January 29-31:

Top 10 chart: