Studios are beginning to report their box office numbers now that new films are beginning to open gradually with the return of theater chains such as AMC and Regal after being shuttered since mid-March. Two new films launched in Canada, giving us our first significant look at the domestic box office that hasn’t just been driven by thriving drive-in locations.
The top-grossing films at the weekend domestic box office were straight from Canada with Paramount’s SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run landing the No. 1 spot with $900,000 from 300 locations. The SpongeBob Movie, along with Trolls: World Tour, have been the only new major studio mainstream movies (not counting specialty label titles) to be released during the pandemic. The latest SpongeBob entry will not see a North American theatrical launch and will instead head to VOD and CBS All Access.
Solstice Studios’ Russell Crowe road rage movie Unhinged, distributed in Canada by VVS, took in $582,000 over the weekend to land second place. Solstice chairman/CEO Mark Gill had this to say about the launch of Unhinged in Canada:
“This is a good solid start! What we’re seeing largely everywhere in the world is that slow and steady wins the race. Week after week, you keep seeing that we aren’t dropping 40% rather 8-10% in most markets.”
The gradual release pattern for Unhinged does appear to be working. Australia has been the big country for Unhinged, grossing the most to date with $2.1 million prior to Friday since July 30. The film will see its North American marketing increase this week as it heads to its U.S. theatrical opening on Friday with a total domestic footprint of 2,000 theaters. AMC and Regal will officially be reopening on Friday, with Cinemark expanding the rest of its exhibition balance.
As for the North American box office, the second weekend of RLJE Films’ Shia LaBeouf movie The Tax Collector took in $203,700 at 138 locations for a 10-day of $634,000. The film was No. 1 last weekend and the action movie from David Ayer has pulled over $5 million on digital and VOD platforms in its first eight days, remaining No. 1 on the iTunes charts.
