Business is looking for the domestic box office.
Ticket sales have gained momentum in recent months, a sign that moviegoers are ready to return to theaters. Encouraged by the trend, some studios have shifted release dates.
Over the weekend, ticket sales reached an estimated $ 24 million, which would be the best since the pandemic forced theaters to close about a year ago if those numbers hold up when the last count comes late Monday.
The sales crisis comes as the US continues a robust rollout of vaccines, and states have begun to ease restrictions on indoor cinemas. Last Friday, New York City cinemas reopened for the first time in nearly a year. While Regal’s theaters remain closed domestically, AMC venues and a number of independent cinemas have eagerly reopened.
On the weekend, 45% of all North American theaters were open, compared to 42% the weekend before, according to data from Comscore.
“It will take a while to get back,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “We didn’t get here overnight and we won’t see the industry rebound overnight, but the building blocks of the theatrical recovery are being set one by one.”
“Raya and the Last Dragon,” Disney’s first theatrical release domestically since March 2020, had a soft opening, bringing in an estimated $ 8.6 million over its three-day spread. The film was simultaneously released on Disney + for an additional $ 30, but it is currently unknown how many chose to watch the movie on streaming.
The movie generated significantly less than $ 14.1 million that “Tom & Jerry” called during the opening the previous weekend. It should be noted that Cinemark has chosen not to show “Raya” in its 345 domestic theaters due to a reported disagreement over the rental price with Disney.
“Tom & Jerry” raised an additional $ 6.6 million over the weekend. Those results, coupled with ticket sales for “Chaos Walking,” “Boogie,” “The Croods: A New Age,” and “Wonder Woman 1984,” helped confirm the weekend’s box office results.
While the domestic box office is only a fraction of where it was at the beginning of last year. Still, studios have noted that there has been a strong bump when there is a major studio release.
Over Christmas weekend, the box office hit $ 23.8 million in ticket sales when “Wonder Woman 1984” and “News of the World” debuted. When the weekend “Tom & Jerry” arrived, the box office reached $ 20.2 million.
These soaring ticket sales, combined with the opening of more theaters and wider distribution of vaccines, has given some studios the confidence to increase the release dates of major films.
In January, Warner Bros. the pack by positioning “Godzilla v. Kong” on March 31st, pushing it higher than its May release date. In the past week, Sony moved “Peter Rabbit” from June to May 14, and Paramount Pictures moved “A Quiet Place II” from September to May 28.
“Confidence in the studio is key and if this weekend was any indication, the industry is on the right track,” Dergarabedian said. “The theatrical market is waking up like a sleeping giant and we are slowly but surely seeing the signs of a cash register revival.”
“2021, while still impacted by a limited percentage of open theaters, could perform better than expected even if release dates continue to shift,” he said. “The fact that studios are now moving titles by days and weeks instead of months is a really great sign.”
Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe star in “A Quiet Place Part II.”
Paramount Pictures
Of course there are a few more titles that have moved backwards. Universal’s “F9” delayed the Memorial Day weekend release in favor of June 25, and the company’s animated “Minions: Rise of Gru” was moved to 2022.
It looks like Universal is trying to position the film, which has a production budget of $ 200 million, for as big an opening weekend as it can, both domestically and internationally. While the box office is mending, posting the movie deeper into the summer could give a better chance of selling more tickets.
By pushing “Minions: The Rise of Gru” to 2022, Universal can secure a high-profile release date and avoid the overcrowded 2021 calendar. The hope is that by moving it for another year, the film, which, like “F9”, is poised to do well internationally, will garner significant ticket sales.
Both the Fast and Furious franchise and the Minions franchise have released billions of movies in recent years. Postponing these releases would put them on track to hit that mark again.
“Given a handful of overseas trends since last fall that, in our opinion, have helped demonstrate the underlying demand for theatrical films, as well as one of the more impressive upcoming blockbuster movie slates planned for the next two years,” said Eric Wold, senior analyst at B. Riley Securities in a note to investors on Monday. “We remain extremely optimistic about the potential for the US box office environment as new cinema shows open after New York City.”
The next big blockbuster to hit theaters is “Godzilla v. Kong” on March 31st. The film will also be released on HBO Max the same day.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.