Liam Neeson topped the weekend box office with The Honest Thief weekend and even though the opening shows there is still some life at the movie theaters, we’re still a way off from things getting back to normal.
The Honest Thief grossed an estimated $3.7 million over three days, and when rolling in Canada’s gross from last week, its running total stands at an estimated $4.2 million. The Honest Thief is getting an extra boost from Imax, Dolby, and PLF, formats which Neeson action films don’t typically have access to in a highly competitive major studio tentpole environment. The gross is pretty much in line with recent openings for films like Unhinged and last week’s box office champ, The War With Grandpa. Needless to say, it’s not a great opening but decent with all things considered. The best cities for The Honest Thief were Miami, Chicago, San Diego, and Atlanta and word of mouth, if some should emerge, could be good given that the film scored an 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. There is something that needs to be kept in mind. Even with the good news about New York’s plans to reopen cinemas on October 23, albeit sans NYC, we’re still a ways off from seeing the domestic box office back on its feet. Roughly 16% of the nation is still closed: Los Angeles County still needs to open, and San Francisco health officials need to OK the sale of concessions for exhibitors to come back in the City by the Bay. Regal needs to turn its lights back on but it looks like their plan is still to remain closed until viable films begin to open in 2021.
Tenet grossed $1.6 million over the weekend and the gross gets the film over $50 million at the domestic box office with a gross of $50.6 million. The domestic total is still an issue and it’s highly doubtful it can rebound in the weeks ahead but the international box office for Tenet is making up some ground. The film has grossed $334 million at the worldwide box office but it’s still a way off from breaking even for Warner Bros.
