The home box office is looking for things.
In recent months, ticket sales have accelerated, a sign that moviegoers are ready to return to theaters. Encouraged by the trend, some studies have increased release dates.
Over the weekend, ticket sales reached an estimated $ 24 million, which would be the best show since the pandemic forced theaters to close about a year ago if those numbers hold when the bill arrives. final to final Monday.
The sharp rise in sales comes as the United States continues with a strong vaccine deployment and states have begun to ease restrictions on indoor movie theaters. Last Friday was the first time New York cinemas were able to reopen in almost a year. Although the Regal theaters remain closed nationally, the AMC offices and several independent cinemas eagerly reopened.
Over the weekend, 45% of all U.S. theaters were open, up from 42% the previous weekend, according to Comscore data.
“The road back will take a while,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “We didn’t get here overnight and we won’t see the industry recover in a single weekend, but the basics of theatrical recovery are being laid one by one.”
“Stripe and the Last Dragon,” Disney’s first nationwide film release since March 2020, had a smooth opening, earning an estimated $ 8.6 million over the three days of distribution. The film was released simultaneously at Disney + for an additional $ 30, but it is currently unknown how many chose to watch the movie streaming.
The film grossed considerably less than the $ 14.1 million that “Tom & Jerry” sounded during its premiere the previous weekend. It should be noted that Cinemark chose not to show “Raya” in its 345 national cinemas due to a disagreement over the rental price with Disney.
“Tom & Jerry” added an additional $ 6.6 million over the most recent weekend. These results, along with ticket sales for “Chaos Walking,” “Boogie,” “The Croods: A New Age,” and “Wonder Woman 1984,” helped drive the weekend’s box office results.
Although the home box office is still a fraction of what it was early last year. However, studies have noted that there has been a strong surge when there is a major release in the study.
Over the Christmas weekend, the box office grossed $ 23.8 million in ticket sales when “Wonder Woman 1984” and “News of the World” premiered. Then the weekend that “Tom & Jerry” arrived, the box office hit $ 20.2 million.
These rises in ticket sales, combined with the opening of more theaters and a wider distribution of vaccines, have given confidence to some studios to advance the release dates of the big films.
In January, Warner Bros. led the group positioning “Godzilla vs. Kong” on March 31, increasing it from the May release date. Then last week, Sony moved “Peter Rabbit” to May 14th from June and Paramount Pictures brought “A Quiet Place II” to May 28th.
“Confidence in the studio is key and if this weekend was any indication, the industry is on the right track,” Dergarabedian said. “The theater market wakes up like a sleeping giant and slowly but surely we see signs of a box office renaissance.”
“By 2021, while still affected by a limited percentage of open rooms, it could end up working better than expected, even as release dates continue to change,” he said. “The fact that studios are now moving titles for days and weeks instead of months is a big sign.”
Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe star in “A Quiet Place Part II.”
Paramount Pictures
Of course, there are still some titles that have changed backwards. Universal “F9” postponed the launch of Memorial Day weekend in favor of June 25 and the company’s animated feature film “Minions: Rise of Crane” was moved to 2022.
It looks like Universal wants to place the film, which has a $ 200 million production budget, for an opening weekend as big as it can be both nationally and internationally. As the box office recovers, placing the film more in the summer could give it more chances to sell more tickets.
Similarly, pushing “Minions: The Rise of Crane” until 2022 allows Universal to secure a high-profile date for its release and avoid the crowded 2021 calendar. The hope is that, moving it one more year, the film, which, like “F9”, is about to go well internationally, will capture significant ticket sales.
Both the Fast and Furious franchise and the Minions franchise have released millions of dollars in movies in recent years. Postponing these releases would put them on track to get that mark back.
“Considering a handful of overseas trends since last fall that we believe have helped demonstrate the underlying demand for film shooting, as well as one of the upcoming upcoming movie box offices scheduled for the next two years, ”Eric Wold, a senior analyst at B. Riley Securities, said in a note to investors Monday. “We remain extremely optimistic about the potential of U.S. box offices as additional film markets reopen after New York City.”
The next big hit in theaters will be “Godzilla vs. Kong” on March 31st. The film also hits HBO Max the same day.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.