As box office draws closer to salvage studios, major titles advance

Things are looking up for the domestic box office.

In recent months, ticket sales have accelerated, a sign that moviegoers are ready to return to theaters. Encouraged by the trend, some studios have pushed back release dates.

Over the weekend, ticket sales hit around $ 25 million, which would be the best show since the pandemic forced theaters to close about a year ago if those numbers were valid when the final tally arrives. late Monday.

The sales surge comes as the United States continues a robust vaccine rollout and states have begun to ease restrictions on indoor theaters. Last Friday was the first time New York theaters could reopen in nearly a year. While Regal theaters remain closed nationwide, AMC venues and a number of independent theaters have eagerly reopened.

Over the weekend, 45% of all North American theaters were open, up from 42% the weekend before, according to data from Comscore.

“The road back will take time,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “We didn’t get here overnight and we won’t see the industry bounce back in a single weekend, but the building blocks of the theatrical revival are being placed one by one.”

“Raya and the Last Dragon,” Disney’s first nationwide theatrical release since March 2020, had a smooth opening, grossing around $ 8.6 million over the three days. The film was released simultaneously on Disney + for an additional $ 30, but it is currently unclear how many chose to stream the film.

The film grossed far less than $ 14.1 million than “Tom & Jerry” sounded when it opened the previous weekend. It should be noted that Cinemark chose not to show “Raya” in its 345 national theaters due to a rental price disagreement reported with Disney.

“Tom & Jerry” raised an additional $ 6.6 million over the most recent weekend. These results, along with ticket sales for “Chaos Walking,” “Boogie,” “The Croods: A New Age,” and “Wonder Woman 1984,” helped support the weekend’s box office results.

While the domestic box office is still a fraction of what it was at the start of last year. Still, the studios noticed that there was a big bump during a major studio release.

Over the Christmas weekend, the box office raked in $ 23.8 million in ticket sales as “Wonder Woman 1984” and “News of the World” debuted. Then on the weekend that “Tom & Jerry” arrived, the box office hit $ 20.2 million.

This surge in ticket sales, combined with the opening of more theaters and wider vaccine distribution, has given some studios the confidence to increase release dates for major films.

In January, Warner Bros. led the pack by positioning “Godzilla v. Kong ”on March 31, pushing it back from its May release date. Then last week Sony moved “Peter Rabbit” to May 14 from June, and Paramount Pictures brought “A Quiet Place II” to May 28 from September.

“Confidence in the studio is key and if this weekend was any indication, the industry is on the right track,” Dergarabedian said. “The theater market is waking up like a sleeping giant and we are slowly but surely seeing signs of a box office revival.”

“2021, while still impacted by a limited percentage of open theaters, could prove to perform better than expected, even if release dates continue to change,” he said. “The fact that the studios are now moving titles by days and weeks rather than by month is a very good sign.”

Of course, there are still titles that have retreated. Universal’s “F9” has postponed its Memorial Day weekend release in favor of June 25, and the company’s animated feature “Minions: Rise of Gru” has been moved to 2022.

It looks like Universal is looking to position the film, which has a production budget of $ 200 million, for as big an opening weekend as possible, both domestically and internationally. As the box office picks up, placing the film deeper in the summer might give it a better chance at selling more tickets.

Likewise, pushing “Minions: The Rise of Gru” to 2022 allows Universal to set a high-profile date for its release and avoid the crowded 2021 schedule. The hope is that by moving it to another year, the film, which like “F9” is poised to do well internationally, will capture significant ticket sales.

The Fast and Furious franchise and the Minions franchise have released billion dollar movies in recent years. Postponing these posts would put them on track to reach that mark again.

“Considering a few overseas trends since last fall that we believe have helped demonstrate the underlying demand for films as well as one of the most impressive upcoming blockbuster movie series slated for both. next few years, “said Eric Wold, senior analyst at B. Riley Securities in a note to investors on Monday. “We remain extremely optimistic about the potential of the US box office environment as other film markets reopen after New York.”

The next big blockbuster to hit theaters will be “Godzilla v. Kong” on March 31. The film is also arriving on HBO Max the same day.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.