Box office numbers from the weekend suggest Americans still aren’t returning to the movie theaters, even though more theaters are opening up.
What’s going on?
Fox Business reports that estimates from the weekend box office show low returns for some of the biggest movies out right now:
- “Tenet” — $4.7 million
- “The New Mutants” — $1.6 million
- “Unhinged” — $1.3 million
- “The Broken Hearts Gallery” — $800,000
- “Infidel” — $1.5 million
“There’s no question that this is an extraordinarily challenging marketplace, especially for North America,” Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s senior media analyst, told Fox Business. “This is a slow roll out. It’s going to take some time.”
The slow opening comes about six months since the coronavirus pandemic forced movie theaters to close their doors and for studios to delay their big releases for the year.
Lack of new films
New data show that about 65%-75% of movie theaters have reopened in the U.S., according to Variety.
New York City and Los Angeles — two of the biggest markets for movies — have not opened in their movie theaters, though, which has led to hesitancy from studios to release big budget films.
- “It’s natural that we’re going to see release date changes for many movies,” Dergarabedian told Fox Business. “It’s a very unpredictable marketplace.”