by Conan Simmons – December 21, 2020 – 6:08 am
The weekend before Christmas and all through the cinemas not a creature was stirring because most of them are still closed. The few that are open across the country saw the new Milla Jovovich fantasy ‘Monster Hunter’ take the top spot at the weekend box office as ‘The Croods: A New Age’ relinquishes its lead and becomes available to stream at home. ‘Monster Hunter’ costars Tony Jaa and is adapted from the hit video game. The film had been released to theaters in China last week but was quickly pulled due to perceived racism in the translation of one scene. The film is being re-edited for China and will soon make its way back to screens there.
Here in the U.S. audiences are starving for content with many eagerly awaiting the release of ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ on Christmas Day. How well it does in theaters will be heavily hampered not only by the controversial day-and-date release to streaming on HBO Max, it will have to navigate a theater landscape of shuttered screens due to a wildly surging Covid-19 virus. Going up against the Tom Hanks western ‘News of the World’ will also cut into its box office as audiences may watch the superhero fantasy at home.
Globally the situation is looking worse than ever. ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ just released in China to a dismal 18 million as theater going is down in that country and audiences there prefer domestic films. In Europe there is a new mutation of the coronavirus that has caused the U.K. to go into severe lockdown mode. Other nations in Europe are also continuing lockdowns for the remainder of the year which is undoubtedly affecting the box offices there. Even down under, Australia is going back into hard lockdowns making the short term outlook for theater going the bleakest in history.
With the mixed reviews ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ is getting it’s going to be a struggle to win the box office next weekend.
This weekend however may offer it the slightest glimmer of hope as the weekend take rose 28% over last weekend with two new releases, the aforementioned ‘Monster Hunter’ and the film noir ‘Fatale’ starring Hilary Swank. Then, of course, there is the holiday favorite ‘Elf’ holding on as its rerelease continues.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (December 18-20, 2020)
- ‘Monster Hunter’ – $2.2 million – fantasy (debut)
- ‘The Croods: A New Age’ – $2 million – animated (dropping 1.1 million, 35% decline)
- ‘Fatale’ – $925k – film noir (debut)
- ‘Elf’ – $365k – family (dropping 35k, 9% decline)
- ‘Half Brothers’ – $260k – comedy (dropping 235k, 47% decline)
Total for the weekend is $5.75 million, an gain of $1.25 million, or 28% increase, over last weekends total of $4.5 million.
Merry Christmas everyone!