As the virus rages, moviegoing collapses.
For weeks, the rate of moviegoing has been relatively steady. It's been a fraction of what it usually would be, of course, but still, the grosses of each weekend's top movies has been remarkably steady.
That changed last weekend, as Americans coast to coast responded to the surge of Coronavirus cases and the commands that everyone hunker down and cancel any Thanksgiving plans outside their own house. That included trips to the local multiplex. Open theaters easily had their worst weekend since theaters began opening again in August. And while hope--and a vaccine--are on the horizon, it might be a long, dark winter before we get there.
Leading the pack was the body swap horror comedy Freaky, which was the only film out that managed to top $1 million for the weekend. It took in $1.3 million, for a ten-day total of $5.7 million. Being a horror movie, it likely would have fallen off quite a bit during its second weekend, but its decline probably wouldn't have been this dramatic.
The War With Grandpa, easily the biggest hit to open after Tenet, jumped back to second with $0.7 million. The Robert De Niro family comedy has now earned $16.2 million since it opened in mid-October. Western noir Let Him Go slipped to third, about $20,000 behind Grandpa, now having taken in $7.9 million.
After Come Play and its $8.1 million total gross in 4th, was the now-weekly Disney re-release. This time around, it was The Santa Clause, which opened to $0.5 million. We'll see if it can do anywhere near the business that Hocus Pocus did during October. Honest Thief, with a total gross of $13 million, came in 6th, ahead of the Jackie Chan thriller Vanguard, which debuted with a disappointing $0.4 million.
Rounding out the top 10 were Tenet, still chugging along with a gross that's now up to $56.9 million, followed by another newcomer, The Last Vermeer, with opened to $0.2 million. At 10th was the awkwardly-titled anime Gkijouban Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel--III. Spring Song. It also took in around $0.2 million.
As usual on Thanksgiving weekend, new releases open on Wednesday, so already playing is the biggest release since Tenet, The Croods: A New Age. The sequel to the 2013 hit about a decidedly not modern stone age family should easily win the weekend, though how much it will take in is up in the air. Some of the more optimistic predictions suggest a five-day opening of over $10 million. The only other newcomer is Disney's re-release of Frozen, which might be able to generate those Hocus Pocus numbers. We'll find out next week.
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