Last year, Frozen II opened in theaters the weekend before Thanksgiving and earned $130M at the Box Office. A year later, with the COVID-19 pandemic still causing lockdowns, theater closures and blockbuster delays, theaters weren’t even able to pull in $7M total.
Freaky, a Universal Horror Comedy from writer-director Christopher Landon, held on to the #1 spot it earned after opening last week. It earned $1.2M in 2,057 theaters for an average of $539 per theater. Only about 2,800 theaters were open this weekend, which is down from the 3,400 that were open last weekend.
While some smaller films have found success during the pandemic due to a lack of blockbuster releases, the results haven’t always been entirely positive. Jackie Chan’s new action thriller, Vanguard, opened last weekend, and only earned about $300 per theater.
The Robert De Niro led family film, The War with Grandpa, jumped up to the #2 spot this weekend (its seventh week in theaters), seeing only a 45% loss in revenue.
With no clear end in sight, it’s uncertain whether theaters will be able to continue on for much longer. And with more movies being pushed directly onto streaming services, it remains to be seen if audiences will return to theaters in full force once it becomes safe to do so.
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