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 Yet Hollywood is finding that,
at least while a plague of Biblical proportion
rages, the answer is: sorta.
"The Little Things," a crime thriller starring
Denzel Washington and Rami Malek, topped
domestic box office charts, debuting to $4.8
million from 2,171 venues in North America. At
the same time, it was available to HBO Max
subscribers for a monthly fee that's less than a
single movie ticket in some parts of the
country. "The Little Things" is one of 17 films
from Warner Bros. that will premiere
simultaneously in cinemas and on the HBO Max
streaming service.
In normal times, those box office receipts would
spell disaster. But today, it actually ranks as
one of the stronger COVID-era opening weekends.
HBO Max didn't report how many viewers opted to
stream "The Little Things." However, Warner
Bros. and its parent company WarnerMedia said
the film "immediately shot up to No. 1" on HBO
Max. It's unclear what that benchmark means.
"We are absolutely thrilled by how Warner Bros.'
'The Little Things' is performing on HBO Max --
it immediately shot up to number one, where it
currently remains," said HBO Max executive VP
and general manager Andy Forssell. "Following
the breakthrough success of 'Wonder Woman 1984,'
'The Little Things' shows the insatiable
appetite our audience has for high quality,
feature films."
John Lee Hancock directed "The Little Things,"
which centers on two police officers trying to
catch a serial killer. Overseas, where HBO Max
is not yet available, "The Little Things" kicked
off with $2.8 million from 18 countries. The
R-rated action film had the strongest showing in
Russia with $1.1 million in sales, followed by
Saudi Arabia with $871,000.
Still, these are bleak times for movie theater
operators. Any film exhibitors hoping that
ticket sales could return to pre-pandemic levels
in 2021 were stymied by another round of release
date delays. Earlier in January, MGM postponed
the James Bond sequel "No Time to Die" from
April to October. That prompted rival studios to
once again push their films scheduled for early
2021, such as "Morbius," "Ghostbusters
Afterlife," "Cinderella," and "A Quiet Place
Part II." It's also widely expected that
Universal will delay "Fast & Furious"
installment "F9" (set for May 28) and Disney may
bump the Marvel adventure "Black Widow" (set for
May 7), which would clear the film calendar
until at least June. Should that come to pass,
it would be devastating to those in the business
of showing movies on the big screen. By summer,
it'll have been over a year since theaters have
operated at normal levels. Most U.S. venues have
already gone 10 months without much -- if any --
revenue.
In some ways, the theatrical market is equally
as impaired as it was last March when theaters
were entirely closed. As of late January, around
65% of theaters remain shuttered and those that
reopened have been running at limited capacity.
It seems that conversations about reopening
theaters in major markets like New York City and
Los Angeles have been all but abandoned. A
botched COVID-19 vaccine rollout, combined with
new strains of the virus, have only further
complicated plans to get people back to the
movies.
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|
 Box office analysts predict the
theatrical business will get back to normal in
2022. David A. Gross, who runs the movie
consulting firm Franchise Entertainment
Research, says that timeline is based on
"healthy demand for quality, reasonably priced,
out-of-home entertainment."
"The vaccination process will pick up through
the spring as the supply bottlenecks open up,"
Gross said. "The government will spend whatever
it takes to make the vaccination campaign
successful, including overcoming the new COVID
variants."
Elsewhere at the domestic box office, Universal
and DreamWorks Animation's "The Croods: A New
Age" collected $1.84 million in its 10th week of
release, enough for second place. Those ticket
sales represent a 2% increase from last weekend,
which is impressive because the animated family
film has been available to rent on home
entertainment for almost two months. It has made
$43.9 million in North America. Overseas, "The
Croods" sequel made $1.3 million, bringing it
past the $100 million mark for a global total of
$144.38 million.
"Wonder Woman 1984" came in third place with
$1.3 million from 1,864 locations. The Warner
Bros. superhero adaptation, which premiered
concurrently on HBO Max, has brought in $39.2
million after six weeks in North American
theaters. To illustrate how depreciated the box
office is, the original "Wonder Woman" grossed
$38 million in its first day in theaters in
2017. Internationally, "Wonder Woman 1984" added
another $1.1 million, bringing box office
receipts to $112.8 million overseas and $152
million globally.
Liam Neeson's action thriller "The Marksman"
plunged to the No. 4 spot after leading the box
office the last two weekends. It made $1.25
million in its third outing for a domestic tally
of $7.8 million. The movie is currently playing
in 2,018 theaters.
 Rounding out the top five was Sony's "Monster
Hunter" with $740,000 in its seventh week of
release. The film, an adaptation of a popular
video game, has generated $11.1 million to date.
At the indie box office, Bleecker Street's drama
"Supernova" opened with $98,670 from 330 screens
for a bleak $299 per-screen-average. Stanley
Tucci and Colin Firth star in the emotional film
about a longtime couple who find a way to cope
after one is diagnosed with early onset
dementia. It's gotten strong reviews (Variety's
critic Guy Lodge called it "delicately
heart-crushing"), yet the film's target audience
of older adults is one that's been especially
reluctant to return to the movies. In today's
theatrical landscape, it's that much harder for
movies from specialty studios to find their
footing.
But, notes Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media
analyst with Comscore, "with great reviews and
an excellent cast, 'Supernova' should find favor
over the long haul." And it'll help that indie
films won't have notable competition in the
coming weeks.
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