We haven’t been able to report the weekly box office totals lately because nearly every theater in existence has been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. I say “nearly every theater” because there have been some screens playing, mostly drive-ins. Now is the perfect time for a drive-in theater.
But more theaters are opening as the nation relaxes social distancing and stay-at-home orders. There aren’t many theaters opening, it’s still mostly independent theater houses. Of the 600 theaters that were open last weekend, 125 were independent, 50 were from the Co-Operative Theatre of Ohio and there were about 30 from each Cinema Service in Dallas, Theatre Service Network and Tri-State Theatre Service. Top markets include Salt Late City, Denver and Dallas-Forth Worth.
All of this information is courtesy of Deadline, who compiled a top ten list for last weekend, May 29-31. Looking at the ten biggest releases of the week is like taking a walk down memory lane. The first thing you will notice is the low grosses, the biggest movie was Trolls World Tour with just $337,800,000. The second thing you’ll notice is the eerily-low theater count (Trolls was only playing in 176 theaters). Finally, you’ll note how the top ten movies from last weekend resemble the top ten movies from months ago when the COVID-19 shutdown began. You see a whole bunch of familiar names like Sonic the Hedgehog and Onward and Bad Boys for Life (which is currently the highest-grossing film of 2020). That’s what I meant when I said it’s like walking down memory lane. Taking a look at this top ten list is like venturing back to a simpler time before we all knew the dulcet tones of Anthony Fauci and the annoying feeling of face sweat under a mask.
I am reporting this because more theaters are slowly opening across the country, whether that’s wise or not. This weekend the US will have 728 up and running. As we have seen with anything related to re-opening states and industry, things do no move backwards. We are headed in one direction.
So studios and theaters are entering the next phase of re-opening and as the weeks go on, you will see the totals above get a bit higher and higher. A lot remains to be seen: will theater chains open as more states do or will they wait for Hollywood to debut new content? Will studios re-release classic films in a push to drive audiences to theaters? Is that safe? Is it smart? Will Christopher Nolan still debut his Tenet on July 17? A week ago, my belief was that Tenet will not make its expected release date but now I am not so sure, now I think there is a good chance it will hit screens as scheduled.
The biggest question is this: how long will it take Hollywood and theaters to recover from the coronavirus crisis? Will they recover? What will movie-going look like in the future? All of that remains to be seen. One thing is for sure: Trolls World Tour can’t be number one forever.