Disney returns to theatrical with a strong, if not overwhelming performance from Raya and the Last Dragon, while two other movies open better than expected.
It has been one year since Disney released Onward, a few days before the pandemic went from "this is concerning" to "this is Contagion", and a week and a half before movie theaters closed down en masse. In the year since, the studio, which had already been planning a much more low-key 2020 as compared to their massive 2019, sent much of their planned output for the year (Artemis Fowl, The One and Only Ivan, Mulan, Soul) to Disney+ and the rest to (hopefully) hit theaters in 2021. While the studio has re-released a number of titles into theaters since last fall (finding some surprising success with an October run of Hocus Pocus), Raya and the Last Dragon is the first new Disney title to get released into theaters since Onward, though to hedge their bets, they also released it on Disney+, with a $30 upcharge.
The results were somewhat of a mixed bag. While Raya's $8.5 million opening is one of the better ones of the pandemic era, it's substantially below what the much less heralded Tom and Jerry opened to just last weekend. However, as the performances of The Croods and The War With Grandpa have shown, family films are, for now, built for the long haul, and as more theaters begin to open up and more restrictions are eased, Raya has the opportunity to play for a long, long time, especially as there isn't another family film scheduled to go wide in theaters until Peter Rabbit 2 arrives in mid-May.
Tom and Jerry slips to second, with $6.6 million, for a ten-day total of $23 million. While that drop is steeper than drops have typically been during the pandemic, it can probably be attributed at least in part to having direct competition this weekend. It should probably be noted that the combined grosses of Raya and T&J exceed what the cat and mouse did on their own last weekend, proving there is definitely a viable market for family films. Like Raya, Tom might just stick around for weeks on end.
Opening decently in third is Chaos Walking, a sci-fi thriller starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley. It took in $3.8 million, despite being lightly promoted. That's better than Monster Hunter opened to against lighter competition in December.
In fourth is the basketball drama Boogie, which got even less promotion than Chaos Walking, and still managed to pull in $1.2 million. We'll see if either film has decent legs to make it to the $10-20 million range.
Falling to fifth, and under $1 million for the first time, is The Croods: A New Age, which made $0.8 million for a total of $53.6 million. Right now, The Croods is a little over $4 million behind Tenet. If its grosses can stabilize in this area, it could pass Tenet by the middle of April. If Croods falls off rapidly going forward, it could be stuck looking up at the thriller.
Rounding out the Top 10 is The Little Things, which is up to $13.7 million, Wonder Woman 1984, at $44.4 million, The Marksman, which has taken in $13 million, Judas and the Black Messiah, with a gross of $4.5 million, and Monster Hunter, totaling $14.4 million.
This weekend looks to be much quieter than the last two weekends. The only films going even semi-wide are the drama The Father, opening ahead of Monday's Oscar nominations, for which most pundits expect Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman to be named, and the romcom Long Weekend. Neither is likely to challenge Raya or Tom and Jerry for the top two slots, but could one or both displace Chaos Walking for third? We'll find out next week.
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