Weekend Box Office Report: COVID-19 Hits the Domestic Box Office

The global box office is feeling the impact of COVID-19 on moviegoing, with studios, cinemas, and audiences in most of the world’s key markets taking precautionary measures in order to curb the spread of the virus. 

As of Saturday afternoon, Boxoffice Pro confirmed 18 of the North American market’s 25 leading exhibition circuits were operating at reduced capacity to support social distancing measures. Internationally, cinemas in Spain, France, and Italy have suspended operations. Similar measures have been implemented in entire regions and metropolitan areas in other key markets.

Major studios have steered clear of release dates in the coming months, rescheduling titles or removing them from the schedule altogether until further notice. In the meantime, domestic and global numbers are reflecting steep declines across the board. 

Considering the widespread social and economic impact of this global health crisis, there is little relevance to providing comparisons to performance from  previous years. This weekend, and those that follow, will have a giant asterisk next to them in the record books. For context, this weekend’s box office in North America is expected to come in around $55 million, making it the first weekend since September 2001 that the domestic market has grossed under $60 million. Most notably, each holdover title among the top 25 films on the domestic market dropped between 60 and 80 percent over the previous weekend.

Disney Pixar’s Onward led the domestic box office with $10.5 million from 4,310 locations. The family-skewing title dropped 73 percent from its opening weekend, bringing its North American cume to $60.3 million. The film didn’t open in any new overseas markets this weekend, taking $6.8 million from 47 territories to reach a $101.7 million global cume. Onward is not scheduled for any further overseas openings next week. 

Lionsgate’s faith-based title I Still Believe was the top opener of the weekend, bringing in $9.5 million from 3,250 screens. It was trailed closely by another new release, Sony’s Bloodshot, which was on track to hit $10 million after Thursday night previews before slowing down through the weekend. Bloodshot is expected to finish its opening frame with $9.3 million from 2,861 screens. Despite coming in third on the overall chart, Bloodshot posted the highest per-screen average from all wide release films on the market. Internationally, Bloodshot earned $13 million from 50 territories this weekend, taking its overseas cume to $15.1 million. 

After a release delay prompted by political fallout, The Hunt finally made it to screens on Friday. The new date, however, was hardly an improvement. The title struggled out of the gate with a  $5.32 million debut from 3,028 screens. Daily box office on the title went from a $2.22 million Friday to a $1.88 million Saturday. The studio is estimating Sunday to bring in $1.22 million. Exit poll data from CinemaScore reveals a C+ score from audiences. 

The film’s opening came in softer than expected according to Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution, who doesn’t see the reduced admissions measures taken by cinemas as a determining factor in this weekend’s figures. “I’m not so sure that the capacity measures are necessarily limiting the box office, I think generally people are staying home,” he said. “We will definitely get to the other side of this, there’s no doubt the domestic box office will rebound. We are simply living in unprecedented times at the moment.”

Studio Weekend Estimates (Domestic)
FRI, MAR. 13 – SUN, MAR. 15

#	TITLE	WEEKEND		LOCATIONS		AVG.	TOTAL	WKS.	DIST.
1	Onward	$10,532,000	-73%	4,310	0	$2,444	$60,290,687	2	Disney
2	I Still Believe	$9,500,000	—	3,250	—	$2,923	$9,500,000	1	Lionsgate
3	Bloodshot	$9,325,000	—	2,861	—	$3,251	$9,325,000	1	Sony Pictures
4	The Invisible Man	$6,000,000	-58%	3,636	26	$1,650	$64,419,685	3	Universal Pictures
5	The Hunt	$5,320,000	—	3,028	—	$1,757	$5,320,000	1	Universal Pictures
6	Sonic The Hedgehog	$2,575,000	-66%	3,041	-676	$847	$145,806,328	5	Paramount
7	The Call Of The Wild	$2,241,000	-67%	3,201	-713	$700	$62,106,911	4	20th Century Studios
8	The Way Back	$2,415,000	-70%	2,718	0	$889	$13,435,873	2	Warner Bros.
9	Emma.	$1,370,000	-71%	1,732	167	$791	$10,005,975	4	Focus Features
10	Bad Boys For Life	$1,100,000	-64%	1,451	-708	$758	$204,292,401	9	Sony / Columbia
11	Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)	$555,000	-74%	1,014	-1159	$547	$84,063,557	6	Warner Bros.

#	TITLE	WEEKEND		LOCATIONS		AVG.	TOTAL	WKS.	DIST.
1	Impractical Jokers: The Movie	$415,000	-77%	900	-875	$459	$9,650,290	4	truTV
2	Jumanji: The Next Level	$420,000	-68%	862	-541	$487	$316,782,404	14	Sony Pictures
3	Brahms: The Boy II	$340,000	-72%	607	-748	$560	$12,568,803	4	STX Entertainment
4	1917	$336,000	-75%	766	-769	$439	$159,183,029	12	Universal Pictures
5	Fantasy Island	$200,000	-77%	515	-847	$388	$26,381,179	5	Sony Pictures
6	Knives Out	$90,000	-70%	221	-180	$407	$165,359,751	16	Lionsgate
7	The Photograph	$84,000	-76%	198	-184	$424	$20,568,320	5	Universal Pictures
8	Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker	$76,000	-62%	189	-80	$402	$515,191,774	13	Disney
9	Dolittle	$75,000	-79%	256	-431	$293	$77,035,975	9	Universal
10	Baaghi 3	$65,000	-89%	257	-8	$252	$718,661	2	FIP
11	Spies in Disguise	$55,000	-59%	136	-51	$404	$66,751,747	12	20th Century Fox
12	Frozen II	$46,000	-68%	165	-64	$279	$477,372,134	17	Disney
13	Wendy	$44,000	-2%	165	96	$267	$142,367	3	Fox Searchlight
14	Las Píldoras De Mi Novio	$55,000	-81%	133	-147	$413	$2,966,719	4	Lionsgate / Pantelion Films

#	TITLE	WEEKEND		LOCATIONS		AVG.	TOTAL	WKS.	DIST.
1	Never Rarely Sometimes Always	$18,000	—	4	—	$4,500	$18,000	1	Focus Features
2	Jojo Rabbit	$27,000	-68%	74	-85	$365	$27,000	22	Fox Searchlight
3	Ford v. Ferrari	$12,000	-75%	55	-40	$218	$117,624,028	18	20th Century Fox
4	Downhill	$3,000	-86%	24	-45	$125	$8,286,938	5	Fox Searchlight

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