£31.4 Thousand
$249 Thousand
$0This week was the first sign of things may be starting to get back to normal service on the cinema industry and Tom & Jerry: The Movie has the second biggest opening weekend since the spread of the pandemic forced the closure of cinemas a year ago.
There is little else going on this week but the coming months are starting to look better, New York cinemas have started to re-open with limited capacity and on the other side of America California will start to re-open cinema doors soon.
Of not this week is the small amount most films have dropped from last weekend, a sure sign that cinemas are starting to open up, and that people are starting to attend.
US box office Quickview
Here is the US box office top 5 breakdown 26th - 28th February 2021
Warner Bros. have by far been the studio leading to way during the last year as far as releases is concerned, Tenet and Wonder Woman 1984 didn't pay off as much as they had hoped but this live action version of the classic cartoon seems to have hit the spot.
Directed by Tim Story and starring Chlo� Grace Moretz alongside animated versions of the famous cat and mouse the movie takes an incredible $14.11 Million on its opening weekend.
The movie is also available on HBO Max, but if it follows in the steps of fellow kid pic The Croods: A New Age it could be around a while.
Falling from its second spell at the top of the US box office the animated sequel takes $1.25 Million this weekend, down just 27% from last week.
This gives the movie a total gross of $52.43 Million after 14 weeks of release.
Falling to number 3 this week is the John Lee Hancock directed movie which takes $930,000 over the weekend, a drop of just 23%, the movie has taken a very good $12.91 Million over 5 weeks of release.
Director Patty Jenkins sequel remains at 4 and takes $705,000 this weekend, down 12% from last week giving the movie a $43.61 Million total gross after 10 weeks.
Liam Neeson stays put at number 5 this weekend with $701,002, down just 10%, giving the movie a $12.34 Million total from 7 weeks of release.
It's been a while since there were any new releases to talk about, and there is still no UK box office as cinemas are closed during the lockdown to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
There is a new release this week in the UK on digital streaming looking to take your attention while your at home enjoying a cup of tea and biscuits and waiting for cinemas to open back up.
In a year which saw a worrying trend of movies not getting a theatrical release due to the global pandemic that hit the world in 2020 its unsure if the industry will recover as studios see big returns for movies on streaming services rather than box office returns.
The biggest grossing movie in the UK for the year is 1917 from director Sam Mandes which was released in January and has not been challenged all year as movies after March had no chance of making a substantial box office return.
The two movies which tried the most were Tenet released in August and did manage to become the 5th top movie of the year and Wonder Woman 1984 which although released in December, after many release changes, was hit by another UK lockdown which has massively impacted its box office potential.
Of the top 5 movies in the UK 2 of them were released in 2019 and 2 of them released in early 2020 with Tenet being the other.
Worth of a mention is that apart from Tenet which is the top movie in the pandemic era sleeper hit After We Collided which was released in early September is the 20th top movie of the year with a total gross of £4 Million, a great achievement in the current market.
Also worthy of a mention is the success the Disney/Pixar movie Onward had at the box office, it was the top movie of the week in March when cinemas closed, then the movie continued to top the box office when cinemas re-opened in July despite already being available on Disney+, the movie is the 12 top movie of 2020 with £7.5 Million.
With a vaccine not hitting the UK in late 2020 the first part of 2021 might be slow for cinemas as well, but providing they can survive once we hit spring it is hopeful doors will start to open again and capacity can return to normal and the box office can start properly once more.
Here is a break down of the top 5 movies in the UK for 2020.
Released in January of 2020 the single shot Oscar nominated movie took £43.7 Million by mid March when cinemas shut down.
The film took a total gross of £43.9 Million by the end of 2020 and is the top movie of the year.
After a troubled first showing of Sonic when the lead character was redesign at the request of the fans, the movie was delayed to mid February 2020 where it took just nuder five million pound on its opening weekend.
After a five week run the Jim Carey starring movie had taken £19 Million and then after cinemas re-opened it's total UK gross rose to £19.2 Million.
Released at the very end of 2019 the JJ Abrams directed, last of the Skywalker sega, took £29.4 Million during its release year.
The movie continued to pull in audiences on 2020 and took another £18.8 Million until the end of January.
Released on the last weekend of 2019 where is took £3.5 Million the movie continued to do well into 2020 where it took an extra £17.5 Million until mid February.
After getting its original release date moved to 28th August the movie was to be the saviour of cinema after 4 month of closures to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Despite much criticism for Warner Bros. releasing the movie when not all cinemas had reopened and capacity was limited the movie spend 13 weeks on the chart taking £17.5 Million and scraped its way into the top 5 movies of 2020.
The US box office has just passed the $2 Billion mark, its November, for the past few years this has happened in March.
When the pandemic spread around the world, cinemas globally started closing down, in the US this is still ongoing.
This biggest movie of the year in the US is Bad Boys For Life which has taken over $204 Million in the US, and no film will overtake that total this year, the film was released in January of 2020 and had a good run at the box office.
In context of this the biggest movie in the US was Avengers: Endgame which took over $850 Million.
To start with all blockbusters started putting their release dates to later in the year or to 2021, but as it became clear that the pandemic would last far longer than originally expected movies started to appear on streaming services.
The effect of this is all those big Hollywood blockbusters that could have, and would have, grossed close a billion either took far less on basically limited release, or nothing due to a DVOD release.
Tenet was the first movie with blockbuster potential to be release during the pandemic and although it grossed over $50 Million in the US it was a potential $800 million plus grosser.
Drive-in theatres gave a small lifeline but even a blockbuster in this arena was worth just over a Million.
With a vaccine being likely by year out to hopefully go into mass production for 2021 we can hope that 2020 will go down in history as a one off, although with companies like Disney suggesting it will release future movies on Disney+ as exclusives or day and date releases it could be bad news for the cinema industry.
As the world still struggles to survive as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread movie production is starting up again and the production of Jurassic World: Dominion seems to be setting the safety standard.
The New York Times has a fascinating article going into depth about what precautions and safety measures are in place to make sure that all cast and crew remain healthy and safe.
The film is being made in England who are much further ahead in controlling the virus.
Only those that are need during filming are allowed on set and all cast and crew are tested 3 times a week.
In case there is any doubt there is apparently a 107 page safety manual that each member of the production crew must abide by.
America is still struggling to keep the virus under control and the film could not be made on a sound stage in Hollywood as California is one of the states with the highest cases.
In the words of star Bryce Dallas Howard "We are the guinea pigs who are going to take the leap."
�Jurassic World: Dominion� is one of the first major Hollywood studio films to restart production since the coronavirus pandemic. �We are the guinea pigs who are going to take the leap.� https://t.co/HnQadjLs4B
— New York Times Arts (@nytimesarts) August 13, 2020