by Conan Simmons – December 7, 2020 – 5:39 pm
The weekend box office numbers are in for the weekend of December 4-6, 2020.
After a good showing last weekend with the hit debut of animated film ‘The Croods: A New Age’ this weekend saw the box office return to what is now normal pandemic levels.
Audiences are currently favoring light hearted entertainment with the Top 5 films leaning heavily on comedy, mostly of the family friendly variety. Three holdovers firmly stay in the Top 5 while two new films make their debut. The comedy ‘Half Brothers’ and the romance ‘All My Life’ debuted to expected box office returns.
Theaters are in the midst of a devastating cinema winter with many still closed and several going out of business. With no big theatrical releases until Christmas Day, even then survival won’t be guaranteed. ‘News of the World’, a western starring Tom Hanks may do well but isn’t expected to be a huge hit, not of the type theaters need right now. The other Christmas Day release will be ‘Wonder Woman 1984’, which Warner Bros. is going to premiere day-and-date on WarnerMedia’s streaming service, HBO Max. How that will eat into the film’s box office will be closely watched by all in Hollywood.
More trouble is brewing for Warner Bros. after they announced that all of their new releases for 2021 will be day-and-date releases on HBO Max. Apparently, WarnerMedia did not consult the production companies behind many of their upcoming releases. Now Legendary, the production company behind ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ and ‘Dune’, is disputing WarnerMedia’s plan to release their two titles to streaming next year. Netflix has already approached Legendary about acquiring ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ but Legendary remained committed to a strong theatrical opening. Unfortunately, WarnerMedia has now reneged on the original theatrical deal. Just another problem for a studio with its share of current troubles.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (December 4-6, 2020)
- ‘The Croods: A New Age’ – $4.4 million – animation (dropping 5.3 million, 55% decline)
- ‘Half Brothers’ – $720k – comedy (debut)
- ‘Freaky’ – $460k – horror comedy (dropping 310k, 40% decline)
- ‘All My Life’ – $370k – romance (debut)
- ‘War with Grandpa’ – $329k – family (dropping 415k, 64% decline)
The total for this weekends box office is $6.2 million. This is a drop of $5.7 million from last weekends total of $11.9 million, a decline of 48%. The box office is expected to continue to decline until Christmas Day.