Box Office Discussion: "Age" of Streaming

 

As the industry reels from the Warners/HBO Max announcement, box office receipts remain sluggish.

Obituaries were being written for the theatrical experience last weekend as Warners blindsided everyone with their announcement that their entire 2021 release slate would be available on HBO Max day and date with the theatrical release.  It's still far too early to see how that will play out, especially once the pandemic subsides and people feel safe about heading to theaters again, but the general consensus is that its not good for the future of theaters.

Meanwhile, at theaters, exactly one movie did well while the rest, well, didn't.  Leading the way for the second weekend in a row was The Croods: A New Age, which saw its numbers halved from Thanksgiving weekend as it took in $4.4 million.  That's actually fairly common for the first week of December, as Thanksgiving usually means a lot of families heading to see a movie together.  Still, hopes that the animated hit would finally jumpstart theatergoing seemed to be dashed.  The comedy has now made $20.3 million since its opening the day before Thanksgiving, which pushes it past The War With Grandpa to be the highest-grossing film released since Tenet.  

The Croods proved to be the only title to top $1 million for the second weekend in a row.  Opening sluggishly in second was the starless comedy Half Brothers, about the titular duo, one Mexican, one American, who didn't know each other existed until their dying father sent them on a quest together.  It took in $0.7 million.

Horror holdover Freaky came in third, with $0.5 million, ahead of the weekend's other newcomer, All My Life, starring Harry Shum Jr. and Jessica Rothe, as an engaged couple whose plans get upended when he's diagnosed with aggressive and terminal cancer.  It took in $0.4 million.

Rounding out the Top 10 were the re-release of Elf, The War With Grandpa, Come Play, Let Him Go, Honest Thief, and another Christmas movie re-release, Die Hard.  Because Universal is the only major studio currently releasing new films, they were responsible for the weekend's top 4 titles and 6 of the Top 10.

Next weekend looks like it will likely be more of the same, as the only new release getting even semi-wide distribution is the Netflix sci-fi drama The Midnight Sky, starring George Clooney.  As the streamer notoriously refuses to release box office information, there will likely be little change in the Top 10.  The big question is will The Croods have another big drop, or will its grosses stabilize.  We'll find out next week.