by Conan Simmons – November 16, 2020 – 6:16 pm
The weekend box office saw a modest decline as new horror comedy ‘Freaky’ takes the lead in its debut. The film, directed by Christopher Landon who previously made the ‘Groundhog Day’ influenced ‘Happy Death Day’, stars Vince Vaughn as a hack-and-slash killer that magically switches bodies with a high school girl played by Kathryn Newton.
The 1960’s set western ‘Let Him Go’ starring Kevin Costner dropped 56% from last weekend marking the biggest percentage drop from an opening weekend since ‘Tenet’ dropped 67% in its second weekend back in September. Debuting on Labor Day weekend ‘Tenet’ has finally dropped out of the Weekend Box Office Top 5.
As Universal extends an historic distribution deal to include Cinemark as well as AMC this is how the Weekend Box Office Top 5 stands:
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (November 13-15, 2020)
- ‘Freaky’ – $3.7 million – horror comedy (debut)
- ‘Let Him Go’ – $1.8 million – western (dropping 2.3 million, 56% decline)
- ‘War with Grandpa’ – $1.3 million – family (dropping 200k, 13% decline)
- ‘Come Play’ – $1.1 million – horror (dropping 600k, 35% decline)
- ‘Honest Thief’ – $800k – action crime (dropping 300k, 27% decline)
The total for the weekend is $8.7 million. This is a drop of $600k from last weekend for a 7% decline.
The distribution deal Universal has made with Cinemark theaters is an extension of the deal Universal made with AMC over the summer. That deal allowed for the studio to release movies to PVOD (premium video on demand) 17 days after theatrical release. In the new deal with Cinemark if a movie makes $50 million or more on its opening weekend it must stay exclusively in theaters for a minimum of 31 days. If it makes less then it can move to PVOD in the 17 day time frame with theaters keeping the option of showing the movie if they so choose.
Regal cinemas remain closed during the pandemic. A deal between Universal and Regal remains unlikely as Regal feels the 17 day window is too aggressive.