US release: 24th July 2020
£0 $1.6 Million
$2.1 MillionAs the North American box office slowly starts to come to life what is arguably the biggest new release in many weeks and takes nearly a million dollars.
With the release of Tenet in the coming week there is the hope that this event will get the public back to movie theatres who still seem reluctant to sit in a dark room for 2 hours plus with total strangers!
Here is a rundown of this week top 5 movies in North America 14th - 16th August 2020.
The third Spongebob movie to hit movie theatres takes over at the top of the US box office on its debut weekend with a very decent (in current time) take of $900K.
This is the closest a movie has got to a 1 million dollar weekend since the pandemic started, but then it is perhaps the first anticipated movie in many weeks.
Maybe not as anticipated as the yellow sponge but Russell Crowe's new movie makes its debut at number 2 this weekend.
The movie takes $582K on its debut weekend, it would have been interesting to see how this film would have performed under normal circumstances, Spongebob would have been a big hit regardless but with little hype this may have disappeared without trace onto VOD.
A film which would have definitely disappeared without trace is this Shia LaBeouf starring movie which was at the top last week and falls to 3 this week with $203.7K.
After 2 week of release the David Ayer directed film has taken $634.1K in total grosses.
4 weeks on the David Franco directed movie falls to 4 with $78K over the weekend taking its total gross to $1.3 Million.
Climbing up a single place and hitting the top 5 this week is the sequel to Train to Busan from director Sang-ho Yeon which takes $79.2K over the weekend to boost its US total gross to $273.2K.
This week sees the return on Shia LaBeouf to the box office in The Tax Collector which makes its way onto the few hundred cinemas and drive-ins that are open across the country and takes the top spot on its debut.
There are a number of new released hitting the top 5 this week and all are available on VOD streaming services as well as at selected cinemas as seems to be the 'new normal' which the world is experiencing at the moment.
Here is a breakdown of the top 5 movies in America for weekend 7th - 9th August 2020.
Directed by David Ayer this action movie makes its debut at the top of the box office knocking The Rental from the top after residing there for a couple of weeks.
the movie takes $309.6K on its debut which is slightly higher that The Rental did last week at the top.
The Dave Franco directed movie falls to number 2 this week after a couple of weeks at the top with $123.7K over the weekend.
The movie now joins the growing number of movies that have made over a million dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic with $1.1 Million total gross after 3 weeks of release.
Sang-ho Yeon delivers his sequel to the highly praised zombie movie Train to Busan which makes its debut on the US box office at number 3 this week with $118.6K.
The Vinnie Jones starring action movie goes back into the top 5 this week with $71.6K, the movies total US gross is $446.2K after 3 weeks of release.
Liam Neeson is back in this romantic comedy directed by James D'Arcy which takes $33.9K on its debut weekend of release.
The US box office is still limping along with drive-in movie theatres making up most of the box office figures as cinemas continue to struggle to re-open in light of the continued threat of COVID-19
This week The Rental remains at the top and older catalogue titles still continue to dominate the top 5 movies.
Here are the top 5 movies in America 31st July - 2 August 2020.
The Dave Franco directed horror movie spends another weekend at the top of the US box office with a gross of $317K over the Friday to Sunday frame.
The movie has now taken just under a million with $916K and will most likely be the third film under the cinema closures to cross the million mark.
The 1983 classic spends a 6th weekend on rerelease on the box office, this weekend its sits at number 2 with a gross of $150K pushing the movies total to $62.7 Million since release.
Steven Spielberg's evergreen classic spends its 7th weekend on the box office under release, this weekend at number 3 it takes $117K pushing its total since release to $403.6 Million.
The ever popular time travel movie starring Michael J. Fox is at number 4 with a weekend gross of $107K wihch takes its total gross since release to $211.2 Million.
Staying at number 5 this week is director Scott Wiper's gangster movie starring Vinnie Jones which takes $105K for a $332.3K total after 2 weeks.
Still no sign of the US closedown ending anytime soon so the American box office is once more relying on mainly drive-in movie theatres for its figures.
This week the Dave Franco directed The Rental tops the box office with ease and is the widest release since the pandemic closed 99% of movie theatres.
Here is a rundown of the top 5 box office films in America 24th - 26th July 2020.
Directed by Dave Franco this horror suspense movie takes the top spot with ease, last weeks Beauty And The Beast live action doesn't even feature on this week chart.
The movie takes $403.8K over its debut weekend giving the actor turned director a sizeable hit even under these strange circumstances.
Re-released movies are going to be a mainstay of the box office for the foreseeable future as studios keep on changing their release schedule and this week this 1984 classic is a 'new' entry at number 2.
The Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita starring movie takes $225K over the weekend with a total gross since release of $91 Million.
Climbing from last weeks number 5 to 3 is this old Richard Donner favourite which takes $176K over the weekend pushing its total in the US to $62.5 Million.
Steven Spielberg classic Dinosaur movie for 1993 stays put at 4 this week with $173K, the films has now taken $403.5 Million wince its release.
Highest new film of the week with this Scott Wiper directed movie which takes a modest $150K over the weekend.
The movie starrs among other Vinnie Jones and Ron Perlman.
This is an odd one, Amazon is all set to buy LOVEFiLM, a move Amazon is making to get ahead in the European market of DVD/Blu-ray/online streaming services before the American giant Netflix gets a chance. But why is it an odd move?
There have been a number of online postal rental movie services in the UK from Screen Select to LOVEFiLM of which LOVEFiLM has eventually become the biggest, mainly by acquiring all the others, although in reality LOVEFiLM is actually Screen Select, when the merger of the two companies happened the Screen Select management team stayed in place with their systems but they thought the LOVEFiLM name was better.
Included in the many companies that offered online postal DVD rentals was Amazon, a service which was very good, much better than LOVEFiLM, but after only a couple of years LOVEFiLM bought the rental only service from Amazon, but Amazon became a major stakeholder in LOVEFiLM.
Now the whole story has gone full circle and Amazon will own the company outright, what I would like to see is the service integrated back into the Amazon website.
Amazon are making the right move, LOVEFiLM is now streaming on the PS3 and before long I can see it happening on many other devices, Apple TV maybe, Freeview HD boxes, and the killer, directly to TV's, Sony produce a lot of TV's and the relationship is already in play through the PS3.
It's a smart move for Amazon and one, which I am sure, will finally put the old high street movie rental stores into history, sorry Blockbuster we will remember you fondly but I think your time is up.