by Conan Simmons – March 8, 2021 – 5:21 am
Theaters have reopened to limited capacity in New York City, San Francisco and Chicago and audiences are flocking to animated films. Three of the Weekend Box Office Top 5 are animated this week.
Disney Animation Studios’ ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ starring Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Sandra Oh and Gemma Chan takes the top spot for the weekend. A day-and-date release on Disney+ with a $30 surcharge caused some theater chains like Cinemark to refuse to show the film. The film premiered to a $8.6 million haul, nearly half of what ‘Tom and Jerry’ debuted at last weekend when that comic duo took in $13.7 million.
‘Tom and Jerry’ took second place this weekend with the usual sophomore weekend drop, bringing in $6.6 million.
The Daisy Ridley, Tom Holland sci-fi film ‘Chaos Walking’ debuted in third place with another weekend debut, ‘Boogie’, a coming-of-age drama about basketball taking fourth.
Animated hit ‘The Croods: A New Age’ finally drops to its lowest point in the Weekend Box Office Top 5 since it debuted over Thanksgiving Day weekend last November, fifteen weeks ago. It rounds out the weekend box office, but will it be back next weekend?
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (March 5-7, 2021)
- ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ – $8.6 million – animated (debut)
- ‘Tom and Jerry’ – $6.6 million – animated (down $7.1 million, 52% decline)
- ‘Chaos Walking’ – $3.8 million – sci-fi (debut)
- ‘Boogie’ – $1.2 million – drama (debut)
- ‘The Croods: A New Age’ – $780k – animated (down $420k, 35% decline)
The total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 comes to $20.9 million. It is a 22% increase, or a gain of $3.7 million, over last weekends total of $17.2 million.
These films are likely to stay the course for the next week couple of weeks, with minor changes depending on if ‘The Croods’ have finally run their course and how audiences take to ‘Boogie’ which hasn’t been as heavily advertised as its competitors.
March 26 will see the release of ‘Nobody’, an action film starring Bob Odenkirk who is nominated for a SAG award for his popular role on the hit series, ‘Better Call Saul’.
March 31 will see ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ take the top spot at the box office despite a day-and-date release on HBO Max. We all know audiences are going to want to see that on the big screen.
As far as changes to upcoming film releases go it’s mostly positive for theaters with the only major film holding back being ‘Fast and Furious 9’ which has shifted its release date from May 21 to June 25.
‘Black Widow’, the next installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has been rumored to be seeking a release change from its currently scheduled May 7. A final decision on that may come later this month, depending on how current releases go.
Positive signs for theaters come with the moving up of releases for ‘A Quiet Place Part 2’, which will now come out May 28, and ‘Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway’ which has hopped into an earlier time slot for release on May 14.