by Conan Simmons – November 9, 2020 – 6:14 am
The weekend box office saw a decent increase considering the ongoing pandemic and the long, drawn out process of counting ballots during a presidential election. The election took place on a Tuesday and it wasn’t until Saturday that the victory was declared for Joe Biden. As crowds gathered in the streets to celebrate along with the rest of the world, many people found their way into what few remaining theaters that are still open.
The top spot at the box office went to the neo-western ‘Let Him Go’ starring Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, repairing after 2013’s ‘Man of Steel’, as a Montana couple trekking off to the Dakotas to rescue their grandson (not Clark Kent).
Holdovers from last week filled out the rest of the box office with both ‘War with Grandpa’ and ‘Tenet’ seeing sizable gains, though the family film remains in third as Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic dropped to fifth place in spite of its revenue increase.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (November 6-8, 2020)
- ‘Let Him Go’ – $4.1 million – western (debut)
- ‘Come Play’ – $1.7 million – horror (dropping 1.5 million, 47% decline)
- ‘War with Grandpa’ – $1.5 million – family (gaining 400k, 36% increase)
- ‘Honest Thief’ – $1.1 million – crime (dropping 300k, 21% decline)
- ‘Tenet’ – $900k – science fiction (gaining 100k, 13% increase)
The total take for the weekend comes in at $9.3 million. An increase of 2.3 million over last weekend’s 7 million. This marks a 33% increase for the Weekend Top 5.
It’s not all good news. With few new releases coming this month, notably ‘Freaky’, ‘Chick Fight’ and the sure winner ‘Croods 2’, theaters are in dire straits.
The all-star packed Agatha Christie adaptation ‘Death on the Nile’ and the Ryan Reynolds comedy ‘Free Guy’ have both been pulled from their December release dates. No new release dates have been announced yet and no word on if either will go direct to streaming. It should be noted that both movies are coming from Disney who wanted to open their theme parks in California and Florida in spite of the ongoing pandemic.
This leaves ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ the only major tentpole release left in 2020. No one is certain if that schedule holds, even the filmmakers behind the production have expressed an abundance of skepticism, a major reversal from their previous optimism. The most likely outcome will be to wait and see how ‘Croods 2’ does over the Thanksgiving holiday before calling a delay.
Most theaters are facing bankruptcy or all out going out of business if something isn’t done soon to handle the pandemic. It is estimated that 70% of smaller theater chains will go the way of the dodo if Congress doesn’t pass the “Save Our Stages” stimulus package within the next month. As to theaters closing, John Fithian, head of the National Association of Theater Owners, stated in an interview with Variety, “If ‘Wonder Woman’ holds its release date, you’ll see a lot of theaters stay open. If it moves, you’ll see a lot more theaters close back down.”
The “Save Our Stages” bill asks for $15 billion in stimulus for theaters and concert venues across the country to help them stay afloat for the immediate future. The bill currently has 52 co-sponsors in the U.S. Senate, but Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell would rather quickly pack the courts with Amy Coney Barrett and go on recess (where they currently are) than to move forward with passing a stimulus bill to help the American people and American businesses.
As the world waits for America to get coronavirus under control streaming services are sniffing around to upend theater exhibition once and for all. Netflix and Apple have both been spotted trying to entice the next 007 thriller ‘No Time to Die’ away from the big screen. Fortunately, the James Bond producers remain committed to the theatrical experience. If it does end up going straight to streaming that would be a sure fire signal of the death of cinema.
To find out more about the state of theaters and the “Save Our Stages” bill I encourage you to read this interview with John Fithian in Variety here.