Weekend Box Office Report
August 28 - August 30, 2020
By Daniel Garris
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| Weekend Actuals Update: |
| Actual grosses for this weekend include: The New Mutants ($7.037 million), Unhinged ($2.603 million), Bill & Ted Face the Music ($1.125 million),
The Personal History of David Copperfield ($475,800), Words on Bathroom Walls ($441,166) and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run ($424,544 - Canada only). |
| Weekend Estimates Update: |
| Disney and 20th Century's long-delayed The New Mutants finally arrived in theatres this weekend with an estimated first place start of $7.0 million. The final installment of 20th Century's
long-running X-Men Universe performed towards the lower end of consensus expectations, which (like for everything else at the moment) have obviously been scaled back due to COVID-19. The New Mutants played in 2,412 locations this weekend, which gave the film a per-location average of
$2,902 for the frame. For the theatrical industry in general, The New Mutants opening 74.7 percent higher than Unhinged last weekend (and with a per-location average that was 32.3 percent higher), is a promising
sign as domestic movie theatres continue to re-open. Currently, an estimated 62 percent of the total domestic theatrical market is now open, with seating capacity limits also coming into play as well. The domestic box office
will continue to pick back up this coming week with Warner's highly anticipated Tenet opening in the United States on Thursday (the film opened in Canada this weekend and will also have previews beginning on Monday in select United States theatres). |
| The New Mutants started with $3.10 million on Friday (which included an estimated $750,000 from Thursday evening preview shows that began at 6PM), decreased 21.0 percent on Saturday to register
$2.45 million and is estimated to decline 40.8 percent on Sunday to gross $1.45 million. The audience demographics for The New Mutants skewed 66 percent male, 34 percent female, 60 percent over the age of 25 and
41 percent under the age of 25. IMAX grosses were responsible for an estimated $390,000 (5.6%) of the film's overall domestic gross this weekend. |
| Critical reviews for The New Mutants have been mostly poor, which isn't a good sign for the film going forward and the film will obviously face major competition from Tenet next weekend
(which will take premium large format screens away from The New Mutants). Beyond next weekend, The New Mutants could be helped out a bit by there currently only being three new wide releases scheduled for the rest
of September (Sony's The Broken Hearts Gallery on September 11, Cloudburst Entertainment's Infidel on September 18 and STXfilms' Greenland on September 25). Fellow Disney and 20th Century film
The King's Man had been scheduled to open in September, but this past week the film was pushed back to February 26, 2021. Theatres continuing to re-open throughout parts of the United States in the weeks ahead could also
help out holding power a bit as well for The New Mutants. |
| Internationally, The New Mutants started out with an estimated $2.9 million from just ten markets. Debuts included a $1.1 million 5-day start in France, a $500,000 5-day start in Spain, a
$400,000 4-day launch in Taiwan and $300,000 from preview grosses in the United Kingdom. With Tenet opening throughout much of the international marketplace this weekend, Disney will be releasing The New Mutants in
a number of new markets over the next couple weeks, including Italy and the Netherlands on September 2 (Wednesday), Australia, Mexico and Russia on September 3 (Thursday), the United Kingdom on September 4 (Friday), and the
following week in Germany and South Korea on September 10 (Thursday). |
| As mentioned earlier, Warner's Tenet opened in Canada this weekend. While an official estimate for the film's five-day start in Canada hasn't been released, the highly anticipated Christopher Nolan
directed film did open in first place in Canada this weekend (and likely took third place domestically from this weekend's three-day Canada performance alone). Once official grosses for the film's Canada-only domestic
performance are reported, we will pass those along. |
| Globally, Tenet was off to an estimated $53.0 million start from 40 international markets; with the film's unspecified grosses from Canada also being included in that figure. Tenet performed
especially well on IMAX screens, as the film grossed an estimated $5.0 million from only 248 IMAX screens, for an IMAX per-screen average of $20,161. IMAX grosses represented an estimated 9.4 percent of the total global launch
for Tenet. Key international starts for Tenet included $7.1 million in the United Kingdom, $6.7 million in France, $5.1 million in South Korea and $4.2 million in Germany. In the coming week, Tenet will
open in Russia on September 3 and in China on September 4. This weekend's healthy international launch of Tenet is a promising sign for the film's upcoming launch in the United States. |
| Last weekend's top film, Solstice Studios' Unhinged took in an estimated $2.6 million this weekend, which will likely place it in second for the frame domestically. Unhinged was down a very
solid 35.0 percent from last weekend, though that hold was aided by the film playing in an additional 508 locations this weekend. This weekend the Russell Crowe-led film averaged $1,115 from 2,331 locations. Unhinged has
grossed an estimated $8.84 million through ten days of wide release (and an additional week of release in Canada). Unhinged is likely to take a much bigger hit next weekend, especially with many theatres likely to screen
Tenet on a large percentage of their available screens. |
| United Artists Releasing and Orion's Bill & Ted Face the Music took in an estimated $1.06 million this weekend from the theatrical component of its day-and-date release. The long-awaited third installment
of the Bill & Ted series opened in 1,007 locations for a modest per-location average of $1,053. As a result of the film's PVOD release, Bill & Ted Face the Music wasn't played by major theatre chains, which obviously hurt
the film this weekend. With that said, the film's per-location average still feels pretty underwhelming given the online buzz around the film, even with the circumstances Bill & Ted Face the Music found itself in this weekend in
mind. On a positive note, critical reviews for Bill & Ted Face the Music have tended to be good. |
| Disney and Searchlight's The Personal History of David Copperfield debuted with an estimated $520,000 this weekend. Despite strong critical reviews, the film saw a per-location average of just $382 from
1,360 locations. There is little doubt that most theatres still being closed in California and New York took an extra toll on The Personal History of David Copperfield, while the fairly last-minute decision to go semi-wide with
the film out of the gate didn't help matters either (nor did many theatres only screening the film a few times per day). |
| After a modest start of its own last weekend, Roadside and LD Entertainment's Words on Bathroom Walls had a very nice second weekend hold this weekend to take in an estimated $453,360. Thanks in part to
strong word of mouth and in part to playing in an additional 431 locations, Words on Bathroom Walls increased 4.7 percent over last weekend. For the frame, Words on Bathroom walls had a per-location average of $334 from
1,356 locations. The ten-day total for the film stands at an estimated $1.08 million. |
| On the international front, Huayi Brothers' The Eight Hundred took in an estimated $3.5 million in China from IMAX screens alone this weekend. The film's IMAX-total to date stands at $15.6 million. The
film's overall estimated total gross in China through Sunday stands at north of $275 million. |
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Weekend Studio Estimates for August 28 - August 30, 2020.
| Film | Distributor | Weekend Gross | Locations | Location Average |
%Change | Total Gross | TG ÷ OW | Week |
| The New Mutants | Disney / 20th Century | $7,000,000 | 2,412 | $2,902 | NEW | $7,000,000 | 1.000 | 1 |
| Unhinged | Solstice Studios | $2,600,000 | 2,331 | $1,115 | -35.0% | $8,838,200 | 2.209 | 3 |
| Bill & Ted Face the Music | United Artists / Orion | $1,060,000 | 1,007 | $1,053 | NEW | $1,060,000 | 1.000 | 1 |
| The Personal History of David Copperfield | Disney / Searchlight | $520,000 | 1,360 | $382 | NEW | $520,000 | 1.000 | 1 |
| Words on Bathroom Walls | Roadside / LD Entertainment | $453,360 | 1,356 | $334 | +4.7% | $1,083,605 | 2.392 | 2 |
| The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run | Paramount | $400,000 | 314 | $1,274 | -27.3% | $2,940,000 | 3.396 | 3 |
Box office grosses can be reported to BoxOfficeReport via email at: daniel@boxofficereport.com
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