Well this week has been a roller coaster of emotions, hasn’t it? What started off last week as a problem that very few of us believed we were going to deal with has progressed to people rightfully instituting a self-quarantine, social distancing, and a general avoidance to go outside unless absolutely necessary, whether it be due to work or grocery shopping. From all of us here at Flixist, stay safe and make sure that you’re following basic procedures like washing your hands, staying three feet apart from each other, and coughing/sneezing into your arms.
But as I’m sure many of you are wondering, how has the movie industry been handling this? I’m not gonna sugar coat it, it’s bad. Between numerous movies being delayed and productions on even more movies being shut down, of course the box office did poorly this week. Onward came in first over the weekend with $10,500,000, but that number is a 73% decrease from last week’s earnings. That’s insane. In terms of new releases, the most significant release was The Hunt after its cancellation back in September of last year. Ironically, the self-proclaimed “Most controversial movie you haven’t seen yet” will still remain unseen thanks to its meager $6 million opening. For any other movie that would be a death blow. For Blumhouse, it’s a Tuesday.
The box office hasn’t been this low in nearly two decades, totaling this past weekend at $55.3 million, which is almost as low as the lowest weekend on record, the weekend of September 15-17 2000 with $54.5, though I think it’s only a matter of time until that gets surpassed. The explanation for the low box office numbers are pretty self-apparent. People don’t want to go outside and venture into public places where they can contract the Coronavirus. Movie theater chains like AMC have also cut theater capacities to half to best practice social distancing while trying to make some money. It’s gonna be a weird time for the film industry and hopefully things will take an upswing sooner rather than later.
1) Onward – $10,532,000
2) I Still Believe – $9,500,000
3) Bloodshot – $9,300,000
4) The Invisible Man – $6,000,000
5) The Hunt – $5,320,000
6) Sonic the Hedgehog – $2,575,000
7) The Way Back – $2,415,000
8) The Call of the Wild – $2,241,000
9) Emma – $1,370,000
10) Bad Boys for Life – $1,100,000
