Coronavirus Fears Take Hold As Weekend Box Office Sees Huge Drop

While the openers opened only slightly below expectations, concerns about the coronavirus resulted in horrible holds in older movies compared to last weekend. While the three new releases ( I Still Believe, Bloodshot and The Hunt) were only somewhat affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the holdover movies all sank like a stone over the weekend.

As noted yesterday, we saw something similar after the Aurora theater shooting in July 2012 during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. Chris Nolan's Batman sequel still opened with $160 million, a near-record number at the time which was still above the $157 million launch of The Dark Knight. It was and still is the biggest 2-D opening weekend on record. Moviegoers who were looking forward to the Batman v Bane adventure showed up, but the holdovers ( Amazing Spider-Man, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Ted, etc.) took sharp dives compared to the previous weekend.

Still, those older films recovered the next weekend (as Dark Knight Rises legged out to $448 million domestic) as concerns subsided. Alas, concerns about this outbreak won't be subsiding anytime soon. That means, since there are no "big" new releases planned between now at least April 10 (provided Universal doesn't move Trolls: World Tour), I'd imagine theaters are going to struggle for the duration of this crisis. When the best hold in the top 20 is a 60% drop (for Invisible Man), that's very telling.

Walt Disney and Pixar's Onward earned $10.5 million (-73%) in its second weekend of domestic release. Yes, that's a record drop for a Pixar movie, as The Good Dinosaur dropped 60% in weekend two despite taking a sharper Friday-to-Friday drop than Onward. Its $60 million ten-day cume is essentially tied with Good Dinosaur 's $63 million 12-day cume. The $200 million animated feature, starring Chris Pratt and Tom Holland, has earned just $101.7 million worldwide thus far, for a likely $140 million global finish. It's a decent movie that absolutely got dealt a bad hand in terms of the pandemic cutting off any entirely plausible post-debut legs.

Universal and Blumhouse's The Invisible Man had the smallest drop in the top 20, earning $6 million (-60%) in its third weekend. That'll give Leigh Whannell and Elisabeth Moss' $7 million, R-rated horror movie a still-robust $64.4 million 17-day cume and a solid $122 million worldwide cume. This new normal puts a damper on long-term prospects, but it's already a hit. Sonic the Hedgehog earned $2.575 million (-67%) in its fifth-weekend for a $145 million domestic cume. That makes it the biggest video game movie ever in unadjusted domestic earnings. Paramount's $85 million release has earned $306 million worldwide after dropping 76% overseas.

Ben Affleck's The Way Back earned $2.415 million (-70%) in its second weekend for a $13.4 million ten-day gross. All due respect, one cannot blame the pandemic for this one. Movies like this just don't play to general moviegoers anymore in 2020. It stinks, but it is what it is. Disney's Call of the Wild earned $2.26 million (-67%) over the weekend to give the $110 million flick a $62.1 million domestic and $107 million worldwide. Emma crashed on weekend two, with a $580,000 (-70%) Friday and likely $1.39 million (-71%) Fri-Sun frame, but that's more about the status quo than any audience indifference to the movie itself. It has earned $25 million worldwide.

Bad Boys For Life will earn $1.09 million (-64%) in weekend nine for a $204.3 million domestic cume, passing (sans inflation obviously) the $204 million gross of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It has also earned over $415 million worldwide. Alas, Birds of Prey will earn $560,000 (-74%) in weekend six for a poor $84 million domestic cume. Warner Media 's Impractical Jokers earned $420,000 (-76%) putting a stop to what had been an impressive under-the-radar run. Still, $10.235 million domestic is a win for a movie like this. Ditto Funimation's My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising, which earned $329,000 (-81%) for a $14 million domestic cume.

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