Don’t call it a comeback yet.
The movie theater reopened in New York City this weekend, giving the box office its best performance since the epidemic began. Nevertheless, the numbers remained modest and experts cautioned that it was too early to celebrate.
According to the ticket sales site Box Office Mojo, the weekend gross in North America was about $ 24 million, as new as Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, and Lionsgate’s “Chaos Walking” Was impressed with the release.
This is the best performance since the coronovirus crisis in the US nearly a year ago, but it was only $ 4 million more than the prior weekend, which netted nearly $ 21 million in sales. According to analysts, the weekend’s results reflected a slow recovery following a decline in the industry, which was more than $ 101 million on the same weekend a year earlier.
“It’s not that ‘Happy Days There Again’,” said comcore analyst Paul DeGarabedian, but it’s more about optimistically looking to the future, who said that the uptick in open movie theaters overtook the box office.
Disney said the debut of Disney’s animated flick “Raya” grossed an estimated $ 8.6 million from 2,045 locations across North America. The well-reviewed fantasy adventure movie, featuring the voices of Akwafina and Kelly Marie Tran, is available simultaneously for Disney + subscribers to rent and stream at home for $ 29.99. The streaming gross was not reported.
Many experts expected “Raya” to equal “Tom and Jerry” with Warner Bros.’s big opening weekend, which opened the last weekend in February with $ 13.7 million in ticket sales.
But a source said that the Disney film’s relatively “soft opening” is related to the fact that the movie was not played over a dispute with Mouse House over the terms of the rental at Cinemark theaters.
DeGarbedian of ComScore said that 42 percent of theaters are currently open in North America from 42 percent over two weekends.
“This weekend is like a prequel to the return to Hollywood that we’re all looking forward to – it’s a sign in time to come,” he said. “I think we should be measured about our optimism. It’s going to take some time [for a recovery] But it is very encouraging to see the result. “
Elsewhere, the action flick “Chaos Walking” debuted at the box office with just $ 3.8 million, while “Tom and Jerry” brought in $ 6.6 million from 2,563 North American theaters in its second weekend. A revival of the cat and mouse cartoon is also currently available to HBO Max customers for free.
As of last weekend, New York City theaters were closed for almost a year due to the coronovirus epidemic. During the year, some domestic film houses, which closed last March, reopened with limited seating. But, it is slowing in terms of the North American box office, with an 80 percent drop from 2019 to 2020.
Today, about 80 percent of the domestic market is allowed to operate with limited capacity, but many large North American markets such as Los Angeles and most California counties, Washington DC, and most of Canada are not yet fully open.
Disney plans to have “Raya” in theaters throughout the spring, as there are few major films on the schedule until early summer. Mouse House is hoping the drought will give the film a boost again as more theaters this spring.
Meanwhile, internationally, “Raya” earned an estimated $ 17.6 million from 32 regions – with the highest grossing being 8.4 million in China.
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