Denzel Washington Rami Malek Pic leads pandemic box office – Deadline

Sunday AM Final: If you’re looking for some exciting financial action in the film industry, it’s not at the box office, but rather on the stock exchange, especially during last week’s boom for premier AMC exhibitor.

Continued theaters shutdown during Covid-19, with just 45% of 5.8K US and Canadian theaters open, yielded Warner Bros. Denzel Washington-Rami Malek thriller The small things this past weekend, which only opened $ 4.8M in 2,171 theaters, best for an R-rated movie, and older men’s fare during the pandemic. Worldwide, The small things made $ 7.6 M, with money from 20 markets including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.

However, even though there aren’t many people in theaters, including # 1 channel AMC, this operator capped off a crazy week, seeing his market cap soar to $ 4.5 billion and share price. closing nearly 300% weekly on weekdays on Fridays at $ 13.26. This is after a clash between investors who sell short and buyers of the Reddit investor group. The stock market has been so great for AMC that its notable shareholder, Silver Lake, cashed in on Friday, converting $ 600 million of the exhibitor’s debt into equity, then selling those shares for a handsome profit.

Little things’ The 3-day weekend marks a highlight in a low-cap market since August for older men’s fare, outperforming Solstice Studios Imbalance ($ 4 million opening), Focus Features’ Let him go ($ 4 million), Liam Neeson films from Open Road Honest thief and The sniper ($ 4.1M and $ 3.1M respectively), and that of Universal World news ($ 2.25 million). Warners notches his Little things noticeable opening in synchronization with the simultaneous release of the photo on HBO Max. We’ll be re-evaluating this whole experience in a moment as more information has been released last week.

As for the exhibit landscape, as newly-elected U.S. President Joe Biden seeks to get the entire nation vaccinated by summer, Illinois and Chicago reopened theaters last weekend. Boston reopens with 25% capacity limits from Monday. The city’s theaters haven’t been turned on for well until mid-December. AMC Boston Common and South Dorchester will reopen on February 5. Seattle will also reopen some theaters next weekend. According to sources, nearly 2K theaters have not provided a reopening date to date. As for the BO capital states, New York has just over 20% of all open theaters, while California has just over 5%.

We still have a long way to go, and with the studios delaying the product, even though they are wholesaling right off the bat, I have to think there remains a belief in the tried and true theatrical showcase system, even though physical media is retiring and streaming is booming. When it comes to this whole controversial HBO Max theatrical and simultaneous release strategy for 2021, AT&T boss John Stankey was on the defense on a fourth-quarter call, claiming – and it’s hard to argue about this point with him – that “the data points have arrived and are consistent. with the assumptions, ‘meaning Warners was right about how the market was going to suck the wind for a while, as more studios gave up on the first half of the year (that said, we’re waiting with looking forward to the return of the film).

There were other highlights from the 31-day portion of Wonder Woman 1984 on the new HBO Max streaming service and in theaters: HBO Max subscribers in the fourth quarter doubled to 17.4 million, and Nielsen reported that the viewing of the Gal Gadot DC movie directed by Patty Jenkins was a monster for the end of year holidays of December 21. 27 lane, with 2.25 billion streaming minutes, crushing Disney + Soul by 35%.

However, with all those blaring horns, it remains to be seen if AT&T makes any money with this WarnerMedia experiment. This could be a good form of marketing for the streaming service in the short term, and a way to increase subs during the pandemic by tapping into the inventory lying around. But where is the money? Mainly on a frame-by-frame basis?

WW1984 only grossed $ 152 million WW out of a production cost of $ 200 million, excluding P&A expenses. The sequel placed third in its 6th weekend with $ 1.3M and a current domestic intake of $ 39.2 million. I continue to drum up that WarnerMedia should have separated the frame-by-frame product to HBO Max in response to the pandemic, versus this full move.

As such statistics came out this week, AT&T Q4 spending, of which approximately $ 780 million “came from degradation of production and other content stocks at WarnerMedia,” of which $ 520 million “resulted from the continued closure of cinemas during the pandemic and the hybrid distribution model for our 2021 Film Slate, ”Telecom reported.

How? ‘Or’ What Little things to do on HBO Max? We don’t know specifically, in numbers, with Andy Forssell, EVP and CEO of HBO Max boasting, “We’re absolutely thrilled with the way Warner Bros. ‘ The small things is playing on HBO Max – it immediately rose to number one, where it currently remains. Following the decisive success of Wonder Woman 1984, The small things shows our audiences’ insatiable appetite for high quality feature films.

On CinemaScore, audiences weren’t won over by Little things, giving it a B-, which is weaker for Washington in its action thriller genre, compared to the A received by Washington Equalizer 2 and A- from Equalizer, B + of 2 cannons, and A- from Secure house. Some will try to argue that CinemaScore does not work with the same audience as in a normal market. But an audience score is an audience score, and Comscore / Screen Engine’s PostTrak shows a positive drop of 67% and a recommendation of 40%. Those who bought tickets where the theaters were open were 55% male, almost 80% over 25, and almost 60% over 35. Caucasians exceeded 47% of ticket buyers, African Americans 29%, Hispanics 17%, and Asians / other 7%. Rotten Tomatoes Reviews Weren’t Amused With Little things 48% rotten, but they weren’t amused with those in Washington Equalizer pictures either, parts 1 and 2 getting a low 59% and 51% rotten.

About Little things’ marketing, RelishMix noticed that Warner Bros. “Used a short track, Covid-centric tactic, given date and day / day post pivots, tapping into the studio’s social channels with an SMU social media universe of 53.8 million SMU cross-promoted with HBO Max social channel with the emerging 1.8M EMS – and bypassed the traditional surge of new movie-dedicated pages. The Warner Bros. Facebook with 34.3 million connected fans, and although only one trailer, the post is robust over the past 3 weeks, with moderate engagement for Facebook views of just over 500k. But much improved content on YouTube has just passed 20 million views for owned and earned posts and repostes, which is strong. Jared Leto’s super social channels (33.1 million SMU) for him and his gang sons 30 Seconds To Mars bring the SMU social media universe to 109.5 million which is good for the drama / thriller genre .

Despite WarnerMedia’s new love affair with streaming, RelishMix points out, “On Instagram WBPictures, they want to send a clear message as to where you can see the movie on the big screen.”

Main markets for Little things were 1. Dallas-Ft. Worth, 2. Phoenix, 3. Houston, 4. Greater New York Metro area (NJ, CT and Long Island / Upstate NY theaters), 5. Chicago, 6. Atlanta, 7. Denver, 8. Salt Lake City, 9 Tampa , 10. Orlando.

The 10 locations pictured this past weekend were: 1. Harkins Estrella Falls Phoenix, 2. West Wind Sacramento Drive-In, 3. AMC Disney Springs Orlando, 4. Santikos Casa Blanca San Antonio, 5. iPic River Oaks District Houston, 6. Santikos Palladium San Antonio, 7. West Wind Solano Twin Drive-In (Concord, CA), 8. West Wind Capitol Drive-In (San Jose, CA), 9. Cinemark North Canton (Ohio), 10. AMC Thoroughbred Nashville.

Meanwhile, some applause here for Universal, which continues to see its DreamWorks animation. Croods: a new age continually stay afloat at the weekend box office, even if it’s on PVOD. It just goes to show that families in areas of the country where theaters are open prefer to head to theaters for entertainment. Functionality is + 2% on weekend 10 in second place with $ 1.84 M, and $ 43.9 million domestic in progress, with foreign shoots exceeding $ 100 million for a take of $ 144.4 million WW. In the recent DEG year-end report, Universal estimated that the 18 films it released on PVOD in the past 10 months generated more than $ 500 million in revenue in $ 30 billion home entertainment. dollars in 2020, + 21% compared to 2019.

Comscore shows as of this morning, the weekend box office gaining $ 13.1 million, + 52% from last weekend, but well 84% from the same weekend in 2020. The first month of 2021 only grossed $ 70.5 million at the domestic box office, up 92% from the $ 906.6 million accumulated in 2020 before the pandemic. Yikes.

The top 10 charts for January 29 and 31:

Top 10 charts: