Hollywood Had Its Worst Weekend Box Office in 22 Years
With some theaters around the country already closed, and many others remaining open only at reduced capacity, Hollywood suffered its weakest weekend box office in decades. According to The New York Times, “domestic ticket sales totaled about $55.3 million, a 44 percent drop from last weekend.” That makes it the “worst period for movie theaters in two decades, according to Comscore, which compiles box office data.” You have to go back to September of 2000 to find a lower weekend, when the top draws in theaters grossed $54.5 million. But as the Times notes, if you adjust for inflation, that number is about $30 million more in 2020 money.
The number one movie in the country was Pixar’s Onward, which grossed $10.5 million — but dropped more than 73 percent from the previous weekend. It’s now earned $60.2 million in the United States. The top film of the weekend — ahead of both the Vin Diesel superhero vehicle Bloodshot and the controversial political satire The Hunt — was I Still Believe, a faith-based romance film starring Riverdale’s KJ Apa and Tomorrowland’s Britt Robertson. It grossed an estimated $9.5 million, compared to Bloodshot’s $9.3 million and The Hunt’s $5.3 million. (The fourth place film of the week, the holdover horror film The Invisible Man, grossed $6 million.)
That’s the story for now. Whatever happens next is very much up in the air. By next weekend more theaters could be closed, and more movies could be postponed. Things change so fast these days, it’s hard to predict what this sort of article will even look like in seven days.
Gallery — Every Video Game Movie Ranked From Worst to Best: