Box Office Discussion: Canadian "Sponge"

 

We're back!  And so are movie theaters--at least up north!

In March, movie theaters, like nearly every other business not deemed "essential" shut down worldwide as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.  Studios rushed to rearrange the release calendar as theater operators assumed that the shutdown would be only for a few weeks, before life would be able to resume normally.

Five loooooooooooooooooooong months later, the pandemic, at least in the United States, is still raging, but movie theaters are inching toward returning.  Moviegoing has not ceased completely, but at least for the first couple of months, was largely restricted to drive-in theaters.  Indoor theaters slowly started coming on line in June and July.  Theaters, both indoors and outdoors, have survived on Trolls: World Tour (the only major studio theatrical release since the shutdown), films that had opened before the shutdown, indies (the most successful being a low-budget horror movie called The Wretched, which has taken in nearly $2 million since its May release), and re-releases of older movies, such as Jurassic Park, The Goonies, and various Harry Potters.  

This weekend saw the first major studio release since Trolls opened in April (while Universal has chosen not to announce its domestic box office totals, its estimated to have earned between $3 and $4 million, making it by far the most successful pandemic release), with The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.  The twist, however, is that the film was only released in Canada.

It's been a very long time--if ever--since a major studio, American-produced title opened wide in the Great White North but not in the U.S.  As of right now, there are no announced plans for SpongeBob to come to American screens, but its on-demand release date isn't until January.  Since the other titles that had shifted to streaming or VOD were released on that format fairly close to the films' final scheudled theatrical release date, the fact that this isn't supposed to arrive for home viewing until after New Year's suggests that Paramount is keeping the option open for an American theatrical release, should conditions warrant.

As for how SpongeBob fared in Canada, well, it's hard to say.  The film grossed about $0.9 million, which is far better than any film has done since the last weekend before the shutdown, but still a bit of a disappointment, given that Paramount was really hoping to break a million.  But for movies right now, it's a job, not a sprint, so we'll see how the film holds up in weekend #2.  

The other big opening this weekend, also exclusive to Canada, is Unhinged, a thriller starring Russell Crowe as a deranged driver who starts terrorizing a woman who dared to honk at him.  This is the first release from upstart Solstice Studios, and Crowe's star power, while considerably faded from his Gladiator days, was still good for $0.6 million.  Unlike SpongeBob, American audiences will get a chance to see Unhinged this very weekend, and it should be able to top whatever CanadaBob makes in its second weekend.