by Conan Simmons – January 11, 2021 – 5:28 am
January 6, 2021 saw the worst terrorist attack on the United States of America since September 11, 2001. Two police officers are now dead after armed terrorists invaded the U.S. Capitol building after attending a rally by Donald Trump who urged them to “march down to the Capitol” and “fight like hell” to stop Congress and the Senate from declaring Joe Biden the next President of the United States of America. Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, also gave a speech at the rally urging the Trump supporters into “combat” to stop the Senate.
The terrorists, coming from different factions like the Proud Boys, The Boogaloo’s and Qanon carried out an hours long assault on the U.S. Capitol sending both the House of Representatives and the Senate, including Vice President Mike Pence, into secured locations until the attack was suppressed. Terrorists replaced the American flags that are regularly on display with Trump flags as they stalked the halls searching for politicians. A large portion of the terrorists, brandishing nooses, chanted “Hang Mike Pence” in a clear declaration of their violent intent.
Not long after the terrorist attack the Senate and House resumed to finish business. Unfortunately, a handful of Senators and 147 Republican Representatives voted against the certification of votes showing a disgusting sign of unity with the terrorists that forced them into hiding just moments before. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas were the most vocal in their support of the terrorists’ agenda within the Senate. Over in the House, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida wasted no time in openly propagating conspiracy theories as he too expressed his support of the terrorists’ agenda.
Naturally, as the country and the world was in shock of the assault that was captured on countless cameras that day there was not much appetite for heading out to cinemas lacking any new major releases.
‘Wonder Woman 1984’ continued to hold the top spot for a third consecutive weekend. ‘The Croods: A New Age’ is still performing well holding second place after seven consecutive weekends from its Thanksgiving Day release. ‘Fatale’ sneaks back into the Top 5 after falling out following its debut the weekend of December 18, 2020.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (January 8-10, 2021)
- ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ – $3 million – fantasy (dropping $2.5 million, 45% decline)
- ‘The Croods: A New Age’ – $1.8 million – animation (dropping $400k, 18% decline)
- ‘News of the World’ – $1.2 million – western (dropping $500k, 29% decline)
- ‘Monster Hunter’ – $1.1 million – fantasy (dropping $200k, 15% decline)
- ‘Fatale’ – $670k – film noir (down $255k, 28% down)*
*difference from last appearance in Top 5, (December 18-20, 2020) when ‘Fatale’ debuted in third place with a take of $925k.
The total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 comes to $7.77 million. That is a $6.13 million drop, or 44% decline, from last weekend’s total of $13.9 million.
The good news is there are a multitude of arrests being made across the United States of America as many of the terrorists who assaulted the U.S. Capitol are rounded up in airports as they try to return home. Congress is set to either force Vice President Mike Pence into invoking the 25th Amendment, relinquishing the power of the presidency from Donald Trump, or they will impeach Trump for a second time. There are also many calls in the states of Missouri and Texas for both Sen. Josh Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz to resign, with banks and other institutions pulling their financial support of those politicians.
As for theaters, it looks pretty grim for the next few months as the nation is faced with the coronavirus death toll, the political turmoil in Washington and a severe lack of major film releases anytime soon. ‘Fast & Furious 10’ was set for an April release but Universal has removed it from the calendar. That leaves Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’ as the next big hope for cinemas when (and if) it makes its scheduled release date of May 7, potentially kicking off the first Hollywood blockbuster summer season since 2019.