Marvel X-Men flick New Mutants has been a long time coming with years of delays. But the film has finally hit theaters and is slowly but surely reviving the box office that has been in a freeze since March.
The film opened on Thursday, bringing in $750,000 in preview screenings, and then another $3.1 million on Friday. This is the highest box office number we’ve seen since theater closures earlier this year, and comes even while many states’ theaters are still closed including the major markets of California and New York. Weekend estimates place the film’s opening at $7-8 million.
This film, along with Unhinged and limited screenings of Bill and Ted 3, are testing the waters for larger titles like Tenet, who are anticipating theatrical release but need massive turnout for release to be worth it. Disney already made the tough decision to pull Mulan to streaming, releasing New Mutants instead as a safer bet with a better return margin, even with the lower box office numbers according to Disney CEO Bob Chapek.
New Mutants, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, and Charlie Heaton, has been up in the air since its first trailer launched in 2017, followed by numerous recuts amidst the difficult transition between 20th Century Fox and Disney. The film struggled to get picture locked while finding that tricky balance between YA and horror that director Josh Boone was aiming for.
Now the film is finally in theaters where permitted, and brings us back into the familiar cycle of anticipating new weekly releases. Next week, we have Tenet to look forward to, which will be very telling in how the next few months will go with getting movie fans back into theater seats.
Leave a Comment