Universal and DreamWorks'
The Croods: A New Age repeated as winner of a mild post-Thanksgiving weekend with $4.4 million at 2,205 North American locations.
Promotional material for The Croods: A New Age Photos: IC
The animated comedy sequel, featuring a voice cast of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds, has been dominating the seriously subdued moviegoing business since its November 25 launch with $20.3 million in its first dozen days. It's a respectable performance, given that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a majority of US theater sites being closed. Sites that remain open often are operating with reduced capacity, limited hours and social distancing requirements.
"After an opening that topped very modest expectations,
Croods is naturally remaining the dominant film in a market operating with less than 40 percent of theaters open currently," said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Box Office Pro.
"Renewed lockdowns and closures across the country will probably keep exhibition's hands tied for the remainder for the holidays, even with
Wonder Woman 1984 and a few other releases on the horizon to provide open theaters and willing audiences with fresh content."
In 2013, the original
Croods earned $89 million during its first two weekends when it debuted at 4,046 theaters. During the same weekend a year ago, the third weekend of
Frozen II led with $35.2 million at 4,348 locations followed by the second session of
Knives Out with $14.2 million.
Promotional material for The Croods: A New Age
Focus Features' launch of the comedy
Half Brothers, starring Luis Gerardo Mendez and Connor Del Rio, finished a distant second with $720,000 at 1,369 locations followed by the fourth frame of Universal's body-swap horror title
Freaky with $460,000 at 1,502 sites.
Universal's opening of romance drama
All My Life, starring Jessica Rothe and Harry Shum Jr, came in fourth with a quiet $350,000 at 970 locations.
The ninth weekend of 101 Studios' Robert de Niro comedy
The War With Grandpa continued to show staying power in fifth place with $329,359 at 1,285 sites to lift its total to $17.6 million.
Focus took the next two slots with the sixth week of horror-thriller
Come Play earning $235,000 at 773 sites, and the fifth frame of suspense-thriller
Let Him Go with $215,000 at 1,113 locations.
Universal and its specialty label, Focus Features, have been far more willing than rivals to open new titles because the studio struck landmark deals with the AMC and Cinemark chains to shorten the theatrical window. The pacts allow the studio to release new films on premium video-on-demand within as little as 17 days of their theatrical debuts with the circuits expected to receive some of the digital revenues.
No major studios titles are due to launch in theaters until Christmas Day when Warner Bros opens
Wonder Woman 1984, Focus debuts
Promising Young Woman, Universal launches
News of the World, starring Tom Hanks, and Sony rolls out
Monster Hunter. The
Wonder Woman sequel will also be opening simultaneously on streaming service HBO Max, as announced on November 18.
Warner Bros stunned the entertainment business on December 4 with its announcement that all of its 2021 titles would follow the
Wonder Woman 1984 pattern of launching simultaneously in movie theaters and on HBO Max.
Newspaper headline: Post-holiday fatigue