Weekend Wrap-Up: ‘Tenet’ Sits Atop a Troubled Chart
| Title | Weekend Gross | Total Gross | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tenet | $4,700,000 | $36,100,000 |
| 2 | The New Mutants | $1,600,000 | $17,709,589 |
| 3 | Infidel | $1,500,000 | $1,500,000 |
| 4 | Unhinged | $1,300,000 | $15,713,913 |
| 5 | Broken Hearts Galley | $800,000 | $2,400,000 |
| 6 | After We Collided | $305,000 | $1,200,000 |
| 7 | The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run |
$210,000 | $4,200,000 |
| 8 | Alone | $190,000 | $190,000 |
| 9 | Bill & Ted Face the Music | $188,000 | $3,100,00 |
| 10 | The Personal History of David Copperfield |
$150,000 | $1,600,000 |
Well, here we are again.
Long story short: Tenet is once again the number one movie in North America. The Christopher Nolan film took in $4,700,000 this weekend, bringing its grand (true!) total to $36,100,000 here in the states. Globally the film is faring much better, its international total is up to $250 million. As we’ve reported, the movie needs to pull in a lot of bank to break even so it still has a long road ahead of it. Luckily, it should stay at the top of the American box office for the foreseeable future, whatever that’s worth. Warner Bros swears they expected this and are counting on the drip-drip-drip grosses to get them across the finish line. Small grosses over time add up to something impressive, they say! They’re in it for the long haul, they state! In the era of COVID-19, Tenet is doing just fine, thank you very much. That’s what they’re saying. However, I can’t blame you for thinking that maybe WB should have delayed the film a bit longer.
The rest of the box office is obviously pretty quiet. The biggest new release, Infidel, came in at number three with $1,500,000. Now, I am not going to praise Infidel because I refuse to celebrate the film’s producer, uber-scumbag Dinesh D’Souza, but I will say that the picture is benefiting from the fact that a lot of red states have re-opened their theaters and audiences in those areas are definitely the target audience for Infidel. With little else playing in theaters, Infidel was even more attractive to those of a certain religious and political viewpoint. So the movie was actually kind of released at the right time. Still, D’Souza can go to hell.
Newcomer Broken Hearts Galley came in at number five ($800,000) but failed to break a million. Many other movies in the top ten also didn’t crack a million dollars but that’s not unexpected. We were counting on this. We were counting on weeks and weeks (hell, months) of achingly low grosses. Seeing this weekend makes you understand why so many studios are delaying films again and again. This is not a healthy environment to be releasing new movies. Yes, 70% of American theaters are now open (though LA and New York are still closed) but people still aren’t flocking to multiplexes.
Next weekend will look a lot like this weekend though more theaters will be opening, including some choice marketplaces in California. The drip-drip-drip of Tenet’s reign will continue while other movies just try to make any sort of dent.
Deadline notes that this weekend’s films brought in only $13.5 million collectively. This time last year, the top ten movies in America (Downton Abbey took the lead) earned $123 million. Wow, a lot can change in a year, huh?