Following a best-of-the-pandemic-era debut last weekend, Wonder Woman 1984 is charting an easy course toward a repeat claim atop the domestic box office over the New Year’s frame.
Fresh off that $16.7 million first weekend, underscored by a litany of asterisks such as the pandemic itself and the sequel’s day-and-date streaming release on HBO Max, Warner Bros.’ tentpole won’t be facing any direct competition this weekend — or anytime soon, for that matter.
Studios typically sit out the New Year’s frame for the most part, and that’s certainly true in a market where less than 40 percent of theaters are open right now. January itself only boasts a handful of films slated to open nationwide, and if the DC sequel can stabilize after expected post-holiday drops, it may be sitting on top of the box office charts for at least a few weeks.
When New Year’s Day lands on a Friday, as it does this year, most films generally hold quite well from the preceding Christmas-led frame. The last time this occurred was in 2015 when Star Wars: The Force Awakens was in the early weeks of its historic run. That movie, in its third weekend of release, eased 39.5 percent from the weekend before.
More relevantly, films that opened on Christmas Day generated soft drops due to the holiday corridor. Wonder Woman 1984 is more directly comparable to those titles from a release date standpoint, although we’re estimating its opening day business was more front-loaded than the likes of Daddy’s Home or Point Break.
For example, those films slipped just 24.6 percent and 30.4 percent, respectively, over New Year’s. Patty Jenkins’ superhero sequel will likely come in a bit higher than the declines of those films, particularly given the film’s mixed reception and aforementioned streaming availability.
Meanwhile, other movies should generate strong holds with audiences able and willing to visit cinemas right now. In fact, several movies are expanding their theatrical footprint with News of the World rising from 1,900 to 1,928 locations, The Croods: A New Age from 1,726 to 1,751, and Promising Young Woman from 1,310 to 1,333. Warner Bros. has not reported any confirmation location counts for 1984 since their Sunday report citing 2,151 domestic venues screening the film.
The only studio-confirmed “nationwide” release this weekend looks to be a re-issue of Ridley Scott’s original Alien in an estimated 505 locations. Disney is re-distributing the film out of their 20th Century Studios archives, continuing a frequent tradition throughout the past few months. Re-releases have seen diminishing returns for the most part during that time, though, so it wouldn’t be surprising if this one clocks in well below that of Die Hard‘s $189,000 weekend early December re-release at 1,172 theaters.
Weekend Forecast
Film
Distributor
3-Day Weekend Forecast
Projected Domestic Total through Sunday, January 3
% Change from Last Wknd
Wonder Woman 1984
Warner Bros. Studios
$9,400,000
$36,300,000
-44%
The Croods: A New Age
Universal Pictures
$2,000,000
$34,300,000
15%
News of the World
Universal Pictures
$1,600,000
$5,200,000
-29%
Monster Hunter
Sony / Columbia
$940,000
$6,150,000
-16%
Promising Young Woman
Focus Features
$620,000
$1,875,000
-14%
Fatale
Lionsgate
$550,000
$2,950,000
-17%
Pinocchio (2020)
Roadside Attractions
$220,000
$680,000
-18%
Alien (2021 Re-Issue)
Disney / 20th Century Studios
$90,000
$90,000
NEW
The War with Grandpa
101 Studios
$80,000
$18,600,000
-11%
All forecasts subject to change before the first confirmation of weekend estimates from studios or alternative sources.
Forecasts above do not necessarily represent the top ten, but rather films with the widest theatrical footprint based on studio confirmations entering the weekend.
While Warner Bros. may have abandoned theatrical exclusivity for its 2021 releases, they’re not abandoning theaters. The distributor’s titles for the next year will debut concurrently on both the big screen and the small screen, through the streaming platform HBO Max.
In 2022, though, it remains possible Warner Bros. that could return to a primarily theatrical business model, as they had pre-pandemic. Statements from company leadership hinted at that scenario, with Warner Bros. chair and CEO Ann Sarnoff calling this release strategy a “unique one-year plan.”
Here are the company’s announced theatrical releases in 2021 and beyond. Read our features on Disney’s theatrical slate here and Universal’s theatrical slate here.
The Little Things (January 29, 2021)
Three Academy Award winners team up in this police thriller starring Denzel Washington, Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), and Jared Leto (Dallas BuyersClub). The former two play a pair of Los Angeles cops trying to solve a murder, while Leto plays their main suspect. John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) directs.
Judas and the Black Messiah (February 12, 2021)
Based on a true story, Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) plays Illinois Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, and LaKeith Stanfield plays the real-life late 1960s FBI informant who infiltrated Hampton’s organization. With the Academy Award deadline extended to February 28 this year as a result of the pandemic, Warner Bros. is scheduling this film as perhaps their primary awards contender.
Tom & Jerry (February 26, 2021)
The classic animated cat and mouse rivals Tom and Jerry get the feature film treatment, in this live action / animated hybrid a la Who Framed Roger Rabbit. If you always get the two title characters confused, remember: Tom is the cat, as a pun on “tomcat.” Tom Story (Ride Along and 2019’s Shaft) directs.
The Many Saints of Newark (March 12, 2021)
The Sopranos, the crime drama that ran on HBO from 1999 to 2007, is often ranked as one of the best television shows of all time. The series centered on the the New Jersey mob boss character of Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini. In this theatrical prequel, the actor’s real-life son Michael Gondolfini will play a younger Tony Soprano in this 1960s- and 1970s-set origin story.
Mortal Kombat (April 16, 2021)
Based on the 11-installment video game that has been continually released since 1992, this third film installment serves as a reboot after 1995’s original of the same name and 1997’s sequel Annihilation. While this version hasn’t been officially been given a content rating by the MPA yet, the screenwriter has promised this version will be R-rated, after the two ’90s versions were both PG-13.
Godzilla vs. Kong (May 21, 2021)
A sequel to both’s Godzilla, 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, and 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla vs Kong ushers in the summer season with the showdown to beat all showdowns. Adam Wingard (2016’s Blair Witch) directs. Read our 2017 interview with Kong:Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts here.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (June 4, 2021)
The third installment in the Conjuring horror franchise, following 2013’s original and 2016’s sequel, is based on the real story of a 1981 Connecticut trial that marked the first time a defendant ever claimed demonic possession as their legal defense strategy. Michael Chaves (The Curse of la Llorona) takes over directing duties from James Wan, who helmed the first two installments.
In the Heights (June 18, 2021)
Before Lin-Manuel Miranda became the biggest Broadway star of his generation by writing and starring in Hamilton, his first Broadway musical was 2008’s In the Heights, about the lives of people in the heavily-Latino Manhattan neighborhood Washington Heights. For this film adaptation, Miranda—having aged out of the protagonist role he originated a dozen years prior—moves to a supporting role, as Hamilton co-star Anthony Ramos takes the lead. Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) directs.
Space Jam: A New Legacy (July 16, 2021)
Fresh off his 2020 NBA championship for the Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James takes over the Michael Jordan lead role in this live-action / animated hybrid sequel to 1996’s Space Jam. “King James” has to team up with Bugs Bunny and other Looney Tunes in an intergalactic basketball game. No word on whether MJ himself will return for a cameo. Until July, you’ll just have to entertain yourself with the original 1996 Space Jam website, which remains online.
The Suicide Squad (August 6, 2021)
The sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad has an almost identical title as its predecessor, a bit like Alien and Aliens, or Coming to America and Coming 2 America. But by adding “The” to the title, this new installment returns some members of the original superhero team like Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, plus new members including Idris Elba as Bloodsport and John Cena as Peacemaker. James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) directs, jumping ship from the Marvel universe to the DC Comics universe.
Dune (October 1, 2021)
Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and Jason Momoa star in this epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic 1965 science-fiction novel. Previously made into a movie in 1984, this new version is directed by Denis Villeneuve (Arrival and Blade Runner 2049). Of all the movies Warner Bros. announced as debuting concurrently in theaters and on streaming in 2021, this one may have received the most blowback. Villeneuve blasted the arrangement in a Variety op-ed, while Chalamet wore a sweatshirt bearing the logo of Dune production company Legendary Entertainment while hosting Saturday Night Live, seemingly in support of the company’s opposition to the streaming arrangement and threats to sue Warner Bros.
Untitled Elvis Presley film (November 5, 2021)
Relative newcomer Austin Butler plays “the king of rock ‘n’ roll” in this untitled biopic, while Tom Hanks plays Presley’s manager Tom Parker. Hanks contracted Covid-19 in March while shooting the film, making him the first major figure to publicly announce they had the disease. Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) directs.
King Richard (November 19, 2021)
Will Smith stars as Richard Williams, the father and coach of tennis superstar sisters Venus and Serena Williams, two of the sport’s best players of all time. Saniyya Sidney (Hidden Figures and Fences) plays a young Venus, while relative newcomer Demi Singleton plays a young Serena. Reinaldo Marcus Green (Monsters and Men) directs.
Untitled The Matrix sequel (December 22, 2021)
Though the ostensible trilogy seemingly ended many years ago, this fourth installment returns the Wachowskis directing and Keanu Reeves starring as Neo, the leader of a movement to break dormant humans away from a collective dream state known as “the Matrix.” The original film was released in 1999, while sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions were released six months apart in 2003.
Untitled Sesame Street film (January 14, 2022)
Multihyphenate comedian, singer, and songwriter Bo Burnhamwill be writing the songs for the show’s third feature film, following 1985’s Follow That Bird and 1999’s The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. Anne Hathaway stars, calling to mind Amy Adams’ lead in 2011’s The Muppets. Jonathan Krisel makes his feature film directorial debut, after helming dozens of comedy television episodes including Portlandia, Baskets, and Man Seeking Woman.
The Batman (March 4, 2022)
Robert Pattinson becomes the sixth actor to play Bruce Wayne in a feature film, in this take that director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) promises will be the darkest and grittiest version yet, leading to possible rumors of an R rating. Paul Dano plays the Riddler, Colin Farrell plays the Penguin, and Zoë Kravitz plays Catwoman.
DC Super Pets (May 20, 2022)
The premise of this CGI animated tale: while Superman is out of the house, his pet dog turns to fighting the bad guys instead. Jared Stern (screenwriter of The Lego Batman Movie) co-directs with Sam Levine. No voice cast has yet been announced.
Untitled Fantastic Beasts sequel (July 15, 2022)
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling cowrote the screenplay of this third installment in the prequel series about the wizarding world in the 1920s. Following 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and 2018’s The Crimes of Grindelwald, this installment returns Eddie Redmayne as protagonist Newt Scamander and replaces Johnny Depp with Mads Mikkelsen as villain Gellert Grindelwald.
The Flash (November 4, 2022)
After appearing in 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, 2017’s Justice League, and a 2020 episode of Arrow as the super fast superhero The Flash, Ezra Miller gets his own movie. Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck will both play Batman, though plot details are under wraps as to how there could be two versions of the character simultaneously. Affleck last played the character in 2017’s Justice League, while Keaton last played the character in 1992’s Batman Returns.
Untitled Aquaman sequel (December 16, 2022)
Jason Mamoa returns as the title character in this DC Comics superhero sequel, taking the same mid-December release date as 2018’s blockbuster Aquaman. James Wan will once again direct the follow-up.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods (June 2, 2023)
This sequel to 2019’s superhero comedy returns Zachary Levi as the title character, a kid who can become an adult superhero with fantastical powers if anybody says the word “Shazam!” David F. Sandberg returns to direct.
Furiosa (June 23, 2023)
Arguably the most popular character from 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road wasn’t the titular character but Furiosa, the one-armed militant played by Charlie Theron. Anna Taylor-Joy (currently seen on television’s The Queen’s Gambit) plays the character in this prequel origin story costarring Chris Hemsworth, with George Miller returning to direct.
Coyote vs. Acme (July 21, 2023)
The classic Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote is back in this live action / animated hybrid. Dave Green (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of theShadows) directs.
The Color Purple (December 20, 2023)
The 1985 movie of the same name, based on the 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, was directed by Steven Spielberg and earned an Academy Award Best Supporting Actress nomination for Oprah Winfrey. Now Spielberg and Winfrey will produce this film adaptation of the Broadway musical, about the lives of African-American women in the 1930s South.
It took 19 years, but Japan has a new highest grossing movie ever: the animated Demon Slayer the Movie: Infinite Train.
Over the weekend, the film from Toho and Aniplex reached 32.48 billion Yen earned in the country, equivalent to approximately $313.0 million USD. This surpasses 2001’s (also animated) Spirited Away, which had held the record for almost two decades with 31.68 billion Yen, equivalent to approximately $305.2 million USD.
Distributed in Japan by Toho and Aniplex, Infinite Train is adapted from a popular manga comic book series written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotōge, and adapted into a 2019 anime television series. Set in 1910s Japan, the teenage protagonist embarks on a mission to avenge his family’s death by — as the title suggests — slaying demons. The movie follows that lead character, Tanjiro Kamado, as he investigates a series of mysterious and supernatural disappearances on a train.
Opening on October 16 in Japan, the film opened with the equivalent of $43.8 million, more than doubling the country’s previous top opening weekend: 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded with $20.8 million. Since then, Infinite Train has spent all its 11 weekends atop the Japanese box office. This past weekend, its 11th, the film more than tripled the box office of the frame’s runner-up film, Pokemon: Coco.
In fact, InfiniteTrain‘s Japanese earnings are so high that despite earning about 98 percent of its total to date in that one single market, globally Infinite Train is currently the fifth-highest grossing film released in 2020. (The remaining 2 percent of its box office so far has come from Hong Kong.)
Could domestic grosses lift the film’s total further still? FUNimation Films plans to release Infinite Train in the U.S. with an English dub in early 2021, though an exact release date has not yet been confirmed.
Rounding out Japan’s top six films of all time are:
3.) 1997’s Titanic with 26.20 billion Yen, equivalent to approximately $252.4 million, and still the top non-Japanese film of all time in the market 23 years later.
4.) Disney’s Frozen with 25.50 billion Yen, equivalent to approximately $245.7 million. Released in November 2013 domestically, the title came out in Japan a few months later in March 2014.
5.) Local animated title Your Name. with 25.03 billion Yen, equivalent to approximately $241.1 million.
6.) 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone with 20.30 billion Yen, equivalent to approximately $195.6 million.
“Jacobs” might not be in the name—but Telescopic Seating Systems counts itself among the many family-run businesses that keep the exhibition sector moving. Married for 43 years, Fred and Denise Jacobs have come up through multiple industries together, landing in the seating world—along with their son, the engineering manager, and daughter-in-law, the CPA—as the couple behind Telescopic Seating Systems.
Born in Flint, Michigan, Fred and Denise began their respective careers in the automotive industry. Fred found his niche in automotive interiors, while Denise—needing “a little more challenge” than her job at General Motors afforded—went back to college at the University of Michigan. While there, she had two children in four years and earned her Bachelor’s in physics before joining Fred at the AC Spark Plug Division of General Motors as a Manufacturing Engineer.
“We thought we were going to be Flint lifers,” Denise recalls—but a job opportunity took them to Holland, Michigan, where Telescopic Seating Systems is based today. There, Fred helped manage an automotive seating company. This was the ‘90s, when a boom in multiplex construction sent demand for seating through the roof. Ford Motor Company decided they wanted in on the action; Fred recalls that he “went in to make a presentation on seats for their Mustangs and walked out with a contract to make movie theater seats instead.” From there, Fred ran what he calls the “stealth movie theater seat company” Visteon, which from 1998-2003 operated as a division of Ford. “We were making 40,000 to 60,000 seats a year.… Going to all the trade shows. But people didn’t really know that the same people that made seats for their Cadillacs and their Buicks were making their movie theater seats.”
In 2003, Ford’s six-year experiment in movie theater seating came to an end when Visteon was spun off into its own entity. Fred became a minority partner in Track Seating, which bid unsuccessfully for Visteon’s movie theater seat business. Track Seating continued to make seats for Buicks and Cadillacs while expanding into the non-automotive arena,buy ing a company called American Desk. While Denise continued in the automotive interiors business, Fred expanded into other facets of the seating world, manufacturing seats for universities and sports stadiums and setting up an independent seating company in China to service that market. Meanwhile, their son Matt, straight out of high school, joined Track Seating as an engineering intern.
When Fred’s partners opted to sell Track Seating, he was left at a career crossroads. “I wasn’t smart enough to retire,” he jokes, while Denise “wouldn’t let me just stay at home and go fishing.” (Denise counters: “He doesn’t want to retire!”) In 2011, building on years of industry knowledge and contacts, the pair started the U.S. company Telescopic Seating Systems LLC, with Fred as managing director and Denise as president and majority owner.
The decision to name their new company Telescopic Seating Systems and not, say, Jacobs Seating, came from a desire to center their products, which can be found in theaters, arenas, auditoriums, and more largely across North America and Asia. The “Telescopic” in the name refers to TSS’s most eye-catching feature: a patented system (“about 16, 17 North American patents in the last ten years,” says Fred, to be precise) allowing all TSS power recliners (up to 100 on a single circuit) to be raised up for ease of cleaning underneath. Explains Fred, the seats ”extend and retract… like powered recliners, but on a much larger scale.” The company’s Smart Clean Sweep™ and Smart Power-2™ technologies, says Denise, “lower theater construction/operational while make cleaning recliner theaters a breeze.”
Ease of recliner cleaning is not originally what the Jacobses were going for. Back when Telescopic Seating Systems first started, “we developed a very good rocker system and led with that, along with other products,” says Fred. “And then people started buying recliners!” AMC, North America’s largest chain, upgraded in the early aughts from rockers to recliners, leading their competitors to follow suit. Fred and Denise took a moment to be upset, Fred admits, that their new invention was now old-school. Then, they took a step back and assessed what the so-called “recliner revolution” meant for the needs of their customers.
“You look at recliners and you say, ‘Well, yeah, I understand they’re comfortable,’” says Denise. “But I’m thinking, if I were a manager of a theater, how in the world would you clean them between every show? Especially if you had to open them up every time?… How do you get rid of all the residue that you’re going to find in the chairs?’” The barrier to entry for making home recliners, Fred adds, isn’t particularly high: “Can you buy fabric? Can you buy mechanisms to [recline the seats]? Can you buy a staple gun?” Telescopic Seating Systems, they decided, would be a “technology-based company,” says Fred, at its core one principle designed to better the customer experience: “How to power a roomful of recliners. How to network recliners together in a link.” Since then, the technology has evolved, adding such features as the ability to only lift seats that have not been cleaned since their last use and a red light/green light system so the customer can know their seat has been freshly cleaned.
All of that, of course, positions Telescopic Seating Systems to meet exhibitors’ needs during Covid. They are one of a handful of companies that have introduced new products since March 2020 designed to increase theaters’ ability to maintain standards of cleanliness and sanitation. For Telescopic Seating Systems, that product is the Seat Suite™, a single-use partition that can be put between seats, creating a physical barrier between customers and their neighbors. (As an added bonus, the shields can also serve as ad hoc ad spaces.)
As with Telescopic Seating Systems’ rocker system, their Seat Suite™ was originally designed for one purpose before changing exhibition realities shifted the company to another route. While they’re marketed now as a way to increase “guest confidence in social distancing,” they were originally envisioned as a less-expensive, more flexible way for Telescopic Seating Systems customers to adapt to the increasingly popular “pod” concept, adopted at luxury chais like iPic. “It’s something that we had been working on for four or five years,” Fred recalls—“but it was for privacy,” not safety.
For the Jacobses, the needs of the customer—and the flexibility required to meet those needs—remain top of mind, now as when they first started Telescopic Seating Solutions. That’s why, though trade show floors (when trade shows still existed in physical locations) were dotted with high-tech seats boasting heaters, USB ports, and bells and whistles befitting the luxury recliner experience, TSS still sells trusty rockers in addition to their other products.
“I think that, ultimately, it’s easy to be blinded by the glorious, luxurious installation” of high-end chairs, says Jacobs. Ticket price being the same, most moviegoers would prefer a luxury recliner to a ‘90s-style rocker—but price usually isn’t the same, and while the shift to recliners has driven occupancy rates in theaters, in some places “a basic rocker chair is all the market can afford.” On top of that, there are some theaters—for example, those with older sloped floors and a programming line-up that caters to families with small (age-wise and height-wise) children—where a shorter, more compact chair makes more sense. “We really try to work with a customer to understand their business and their market,” says Fred, “rather than selling the fanciest puppy in the window.”
In 2016, Denise retired from the automotive world, where she’d worked at Magna Mirrors, to devote her energies to Telescopic Seating Systems. “When I came on board, that was exciting for me, because for the first time I could start traveling with Fred” to all the regional shows, in addition to the major ones she’d been able to attend before. That, now, is temporarily on hold—but the couple looks forward to the day when they can once again “pack up the trailer and go out and hit the road and visit customers!” Says Fred, “the exhibition industry is really blessed with that personal connection. There is certainly tough competition between chains, but most chains understand and respect one another… That civility, within the exhibition industry, is good to be maintained.”
Wonder Woman 1984 finished the Christmas weekend with a global box office haul of $85.4 million, including a cumulative $68.7 million from 40 overseas markets. Warner Bros. is reporting that IMAX screenings have contributed 10 percent of the film’s overall international grosses to date.
The superhero sequel opened across 32 overseas markets on December 16, earning $38.2 million from 31,777 screens a week ahead of its debut in North America. Domestically, the film opened on December 25 with a day-and-date simultaneous release in cinemas and HBO Max and commandedthe largest post-pandemic theatrical opening weekend to date.
Wonder Woman 1984 has only been able to open in two major European markets, Spain and the United Kingdom, both of which currently operating at reduced capacity. Cinemas were closed nationwide in the United Kingdom on Christmas Day, with many top tier locations closed indefinitely because of local government restrictions. The sequel has still been able to earn $1.8 million from available cinemas in the U.K., while Spain has fared slightly better with a $2.4 million take.
As a result, Wonder Woman 1984 has earned the bulk of its earnings in its first two weeks of release in the Asia Pacific region. China currently leads the film’s global tally with $24.2 million. Wonder Woman 1984 opened behind local production The Rescue last weekend before dropping off considerably in its sophomore frame. The sequel finished its first hold-over weekend in China in sixth place behind local productions Shock Wave 2, Dream of Eternity, The Rescue, and I Remember, as well as Disney Pixar’s Soul, which was made available to Chinese cinemas despite being a streaming-exclusive title in the United States.
Other top overseas markets for Wonder Woman 1984 include Taiwan with $6.5 million, Australia with $4.3 million, Japan with $3.1 million, and South Korea with $2.5 million. Notably, these are all markets where cinemas have returned to a semblance of normalcy in relation to their respective countries’ handling of the virus.
Wonder Woman 1984 is seeing a slow start in Latin America, however, with only around half of the locations in the region’s two biggest markets––Mexico and Brazil––open and operating at reduced capacity. The title has nevertheless earned $2.9 million in Brazil and $2.8 million in Mexico.
Next weekend’s overseas performance will provide crucial insights for industry analysts to gauge the impact, if any, of piracy stemming from the title’s HBO Max release in North America.
Amid the darkest days of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. to date, Wonder Woman 1984 easily conquered the North American box office with an estimated $16.7 million at roughy 2,100 locations, marking the highest debut gross at the domestic box office since mid-March. Embedded in the studio’s release was news that the studio is already fast-tracking a third installment in the series with Patty Jenkins once again at the helm and Gal Gadot returning as the iconic superhero.
“As fans around the world continue to embrace Diana Prince, driving the strong opening weekend performance of Wonder Woman 1984, we are excited to be able continue her story with our real life Wonder Women – Gal and Patty – who will return to conclude the long-planned theatrical trilogy,” said Warner Bros. chairman Toby Emmerich in a statement.
Wonder Woman 1984 finished at the high end of expectations on a weekend that proved difficult to predict given the highly variable nature of the pandemic and the shutdowns of multiplexes in multiple top markets during COVID-19’s deadliest phase yet in the U.S. According to the studio’s own estimates, just 39% of theaters are currently open at limited capacity in the U.S. while only 5% are open in Canada (for comparison’s sake, the first Wonder Woman opened on 4,165 screens at full capacity). Of course, the sequel was released day-and-date on HBO Max and will play on the streaming platform for a one-month run, further dampening its box office prospects. In Canada, the film was released on PVOD in addition to its limited theatrical engagements.
Warner Bros. reports that Wonder Woman 1984 was particularly popular on large format screens (IMAX, Dolby, PLF) and at private watch parties in theaters, with over 10,000 booked over the weekend. The Cinemascore came in at a “B+”, a couple of ticks lower than the first film’s “A” grade.
News of the World finished at No. 2 in its debut weekend, coming in a shade below our forecast with $2.4 million from 1,900 locations. The Paul Greengrass-directed drama drew an expectedly older crowd, with 70% of the opening weekend audience over the age of 35. The Cinemascore for the Oscar-tipped title came in at a B+ and its Rotten Tomatoes score is “Fresh” at 86%.
The Croods: A New Age dipped to third place in its fifth weekend with an estimated $1.73 million, bringing the total for the Universal release to $30.35 million in North America to date. With little in the way of competition for family audiences willing to venture to the theater in the pandemic, the animated follow-up has had a lane essentially all to itself for the duration of its domestic run.
Coming in at No. 4 was Sony’s Monster Hunter, which took in an estimated $1.13 million from 1,817 locations in its sophomore frame. The video game adaptation starring Milla Jovovich, which debuted at the top of the chart last weekend with $2.2 million, now has $4.22 million in North America.
Opening in fifth place was Focus Features’ Promising Young Woman, which grossed an estimated $680,000 from 1,310 locations. Starring Carey Mulligan as a woman on a quest for revenge, the film has played well with critics and audiences alike, but unlike Wonder Woman 1984 or The Croods, it doesn’t have the event-sized scope that might lure people to the theater during a particularly fraught time in the pandemic. The studio notes it played particularly well in Texas markets including Dallas (6.8% DBO), Houston (4.6%) and Austin (3%), as well as Atlanta (3%), Orlando (3%), Miami (2.7%) and Tampa (2.5%).
Roadside Attractions released Matteo Garone’s reimagining of Pinocchio starring Roberto Benigni on 764 screens and brought in an estimated $274,605 in its debut frame.
OVERSEAS
The Croods: A New Age took in an estimated $9.2 million internationally this weekend, including new openings in Russia ($3 million), Australia ($2.7 million) and Spain ($1.4 million). In China, where the Dreamworks Animation sequel grossed an additional $1.05 million this weekend, A New Age has $51.4 million so far. To date, the film’s international cume is $67.91 million and its global total is $98.26 million.
This Christmas sees the release—theatrical and via HBOMax—of Wonder Woman 1984. The film marks the second solo outing for Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, the most prominent comic book superheroine. Though her DC brethren Superman and Batman have been popping up on the big screen (in the form of serials and, later, features) since the ‘40s, it took until 2014 for Wonder Woman to get her big screen debut: as a supporting character, borderline cameo, in The Lego Movie. The character (played by Gal Gadot in the DCU) made her live-action movie debut in 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, followed the next year by Wonder Woman. Upon the film’s release, it became (temporarily) the highest-grossing female superhero movie and the highest-grossing live-action movie by a female director.
The fate of Wonder Woman mirrors that of the female superhero overall in her transition from the comic book page to the big screen. Even as superhero movies went through phases of dominating the box office, female characters—even those as prominent as Wonder Woman herself—were rarely given top billing, instead relegated to supporting, villain, or ensemble-member roles.
The first female superhero movie—narrowly defined as a movie unambiguously lead by a heroine originating from a comic book—is 1984 fantasy film Sheena: Queen of the Jungle. The character of Sheena, played in her first and as-yet only official big screen outing by The Beastmaster’s Tanya Roberts, actually predates Wonder Woman by several years. Directed by The Towering Inferno’s John Guillermin, Sheena opened to an inauspicious $2.9M in August 1984, enough to land it at number eight. Domestically, it topped out at $5.7M.
Sheena was the first (by a whole three months) in a miniature run of female superhero movies to hit big screens in the mid-1980s. The second, November 1984’s Supergirl, opened at number one with $5.7M—the same amount that Sheena managed to make in its whole run. Still, Supergirl‘s $14.2M domestic cume doesn’t overwhelm when you compare it to its parent franchise. Released in 1978, the success of Superman—the first Man of Steel film to star Christopher Reeve—helped kick off a wave of superhero movies that would continue throughout the ‘80s. Superman opened to $7.4M and topped out at $24.36M domestic; later came Superman II ($14.1M/$35.7M), and Superman III ($13.3M/$59.9M). In terms of box office Supergirl was only narrowly defeated by the notorious Superman IV: The Quest for Peace ($15.6M), produced by low-budget outfit Cannon Films.
Finally, the ‘80s gave us Red Sonja, released in 1985. Like Supergirl, Red Sonja was a solo female spinoff of an established film franchise: In Red Sonja’s case, the two Conan the Destroyer films from earlier in the 1980s that helped establish the screen stardom of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger co-starred in Red Sonja as Lord Kalidor, a clear Conan stand-in; his appearance, fresh on the heels of The Terminator, couldn’t elevate Red Sonja above a $2.2M opening and $6.9M total domestic cume.
Following Red Sonja, it would be another 19 years until the next female-led superhero film opened in theaters—though, in this case, star Halle Berry’s character was less a superheroine than a super-antiheroine. By the time of Catwoman’s release in summer 2004, Berry had proved her superhero bona fides in two critically acclaimed X-Men movies. (The critically derided X-Men: The Last Stand came later.) And it had been seven years since the last theatrically released Batman movie, Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin (1997). The fact that audiences were primed for some sort of return to the Batman universe was proven when Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins hit theaters just shy of a year after Catwoman’s debut.
Catwoman sure hadn’t hit the spot for fans or critics; it opened in third place with $16.7M, behind The Bourne Supremacy and holdover I, Robot. The film went on to notch $40.2M domestic and $82.1M globally. (Compare that to fellow superhero outing Spider-Man 2, which was the second highest-grossing film of 2004 with $373.5 domestic.) Star Halle Berry became one of the few people to accept the Razzie Award she earned for the film in person; director Pitof hasn’t helmed another theatrically-released feature since.
The trend of spinning off male-led superhero franchises into female-led one-offs continued with 2005’s Elektra, with Jennifer Garner reprising her supporting role from 2003’s Daredevil. Opening at $12.8M in the then-box office dead zone of January, it was beaten by two holdovers (Meet the Fockers and In Good Company) and only managed to secure the number five spot. No good word of mouth was there to save Elektra from an ignominious domestic finish: $24.4M, landing it outside of the top 100 films released in 2005.
With Catwoman and Elektra, another set of female-led superhero flops led to another years-long lull in female-led superhero movies. (It goes without saying that both the mid-‘80s and the mid-‘00s had plenty of male-led superhero movie flops, yet studios never washed their hands of them as a concept.)
Twelve years after Elektra, 2017 saw Wonder Woman, one of the key characters in the DC Comics pantheon, finally get her own solo outing. Its $103.2M domestic opening was the seventh-highest of 2017; its global domestic cume of $412.5M stood as the year’s third-highest, behind Beauty and the Beast ($504M) and Star Wars: Episode VII – The Last Jedi ($517.2M). Globally, its $821.8 cume brought it to spot ten, behind Disney/Marvel Studios superhero outings Spider-Man: Homecoming ($880.1M), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($863.7M), and Thor: Ragnarok ($854.9M).
Not that there was a ton of competition… but Wonder Woman officially became the highest-grossing female superhero movie ever, passing Catwoman, on its second day of release. It wouldn’t hold the title for long. 2019 saw the release of Disney’s Captain Marvel, which opened to $153.4M before topping out at $426.8M domestic (sixth-highest of the year). Globally, it became the first female-led superhero movie to cross the billion-dollar mark with $1.128B, the fifth-highest total of a movie released that year. Captain Marvel was given a box office bump by fellow 2019 MCU entry Avengers: Endgame, which would go on to become the highest-grossing film of all time. On Captain Marvel‘s eighth weekend (Avengers: Endgame’s first), it jumped from spot four to spot two, putting the character in the weekend’s top two films at the same time.
2020 would give us one final female-led superhero movie before shutting the industry down due to the Covid-19 pandemic: Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, which came to the big screen around six weeks before U.S. theaters temporarily shut down en masse. Star Margot Robbie—as with Jennifer Garner’s Elektra and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman—first played her comic book alter ego in a film in which she did not star. In Robbie’s case, that was 2016’s Suicide Squad, from which she and fan favorite character Harley Quinn emerged as breakouts. Birds of Preyunderperformed to the tune of $33M in its February opening weekend and went on to earn $84.1M domestic, a number that likely would have had a few additional millions tacked onto it had the pandemic not happened. Globally, the film earned $201.8M, making it (barring highly unlikely $200M-plus performances from films coming out around Christmas) the seventh highest global grosser of an extremely strange year, box office-wise.
If the typical female-led superhero pattern of “a few movies clumped together, then radio silence for the better part of a decade” does hold, at least we’re not seeing the downswing quite yet. Wonder Woman 1984 comes out Christmas and will be followed in May 2021 by Black Widow and in November 2022 by Captain Marvel 2. Harley Quinn, though she doesn’t have another lead outing confirmed, will return for the 2021 ensemble film The Suicide Squad. A Batgirl movie is also reportedly in the works at Warner Bros.
After a handful of pandemic-induced delays, Wonder Woman 1984 is finally releasing to domestic audiences this weekend — but it will be a far different kind of event than anyone ever imagined.
Warner Bros.’ highly anticipated DC sequel will be opening day-and-date in theaters and streaming on their parent company’s HBO Max platform. It’s an unprecedented move, and one that made shockwaves throughout the industry when it was announced last month.
Director Patty Jenkins’ follow-up to the domestic market’s third-highest grossing film of 2017 will open in an estimated 2,150 locations amid the ongoing winter surge of COVID-19, currently responsible for daily national records in cases and hospitalizations. That fact alone is the reason why roughly 60 percent of domestic cinemas are temporarily closed, and why even audiences in areas where theaters are open may opt to stay home this weekend — especially with a streaming option easily available to them.
Wonder Woman 1984 is coming off a lukewarm international debut that generated an estimate of $38.5 million outside North America through Sunday — including a disappointing $18.8 million weekend start in China. A number of factors related to the pandemic provide color to those results, and the expectation of this film’s immediate availability to pirating websites can’t be discounted as — at the very least — a peripheral element underscoring the potential impact of this hybrid release from Warner Bros.
Nevertheless, it’s the biggest film yet to release during the pandemic, and those moviegoers willing and able to visit theaters are scooping up tickets in a manner reflective of such. Internal pre-sales observations are out-pacing those of Tenet ($9.5 million three-day weekend) and The Croods: A New Age ($9.7 million three-day weekend) ahead of their domestic releases when viewed on a location-by-location basis.
Denting that comparison, however, is the fact that far fewer theaters are open right now than were during Thanksgiving for Universal’s Croods sequel, and even less than back in late August for Christopher Nolan’s film. Furthermore, neither of those films had a day-and-date streaming component weighing onto forecasting models.
The short of it: Once again, we’re in the wild west of box office projections. There has never been a release like this for a movie that was budgeted, produced, and originally planned (multiple times) for an exclusively theatrical release. The complete fallout may take months (if not years) to determine, and the studio is already remaining quieter than normal — having not sent out a traditional pre-weekend release note yet. Warner was equally protective about reporting on Tenet, and the same is expected this time around.
According to Showtimes Dashboard, domestic theaters are dedicating 30 percent of their bookings to Wonder Woman 1984. That’s on par with the percentage allocated to the Croods sequel over Thanksgiving weekend. Given that Christmas is traditionally a major moviegoing day for families, and this film has a built-in fan base to boot, Friday and Saturday’s figures should register among the best of the pandemic era when it comes to box office.
Still, any box office numbers will be a far cry short of what we traditionally see from a major tentpole this time of year, not to mention for a film that was once a leading candidate to become the year’s biggest box office hit with a chance to reach $1 billion globally. That clearly won’t be happening now, but it’ll be fascinating to see what the film can achieve under the circumstances.
Other New Releases This Weekend
Universal is also returning to the new release game themselves with News of the World hitting an estimated 1,896 locations this weekend. The Tom Hanks-led western reunites the star with director Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips) and is making a play for adult audiences heading into a hopeful award season run.
Current showtime bookings account for roughly 13 percent, second only to Wonder Woman 1984. World‘s marketing has been fairly high profile by pandemic standards, and a release to PVOD — like other recent Universal titles the past few months — is planned for January 15.
Universal’s sibling, Focus Features, will also deliver fresh content to theaters this weekend via Promising Young Woman, another award candidate. Starring Carey Mulligan, the film targets an estimated 1,310 domestic locations starting Christmas Day.
Last but not least on the opener front, Roadside Attractions will distribute the latest reimagining of Pinocchio in over 750 locations this weekend. Currently, it accounts for an estimated 5 percent of booked showtimes.
Not to be forgotten in the mix of Christmas-slated films, Disney will push Pixar’s Soul straight to its Disney+ streaming platform at no additional charge to subscribers this Friday. It’s a strategy that bypasses any theatrical release stateside, but excludes the premium charge employed by Mulan a few months back. The studio’s latest original animation opens in direct competition with Wonder Woman 1984, providing another intriguing angle to this highly atypical weekend brought on by the pandemic.
Soul will stream in territories where Disney+ is available, but it does have a theatrical release in China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and several smaller markets beginning this weekend. More theatrical and streaming markets will follow in January.
Weekend Forecast
Film
Distributor
3-Day Weekend Forecast
Projected Domestic Total through Sunday, December 27
% Change from Last Wknd
Wonder Woman 1984
Warner Bros. Studios
$10,000,000 – $15,000,000
$10,000,000 – $15,000,000
NEW
News of the World
Universal Pictures
$3,750,000
$3,750,000
NEW
The Croods: A New Age
Universal Pictures
$1,900,000
$30,800,000
-9%
Promising Young Woman
Focus Features
$1,750,000
$1,750,000
NEW
Monster Hunter
Sony / Columbia
$1,300,000
$5,000,000
-41%
Fatale
Lionsgate
$700,000
$2,200,000
-24%
Pinocchio (2020)
Roadside Attractions
$400,000
$400,000
NEW
Elf (2020 Re-Issue)
New Line Cinema (Warner Bros.)
$290,000
$2,350,000
-20%
Half Brothers
Focus Features
$220,000
$2,200,000
-19%
The Polar Express (2020 Re-Issue)
Warner Bros. Studios
$190,000
$980,000
-18%
All forecasts subject to change before the first confirmation of weekend estimates from studios or alternative sources.
Yes, Virginia, there are movies playing in theaters this Christmas.
A number of titles will screen in cinemas during the week between December 25 and January 1. Here’s a guide for the films to watch when continuing the holiday tradition of a big screen with your family this holiday season.
Wonder Woman 1984
This is the big one. Warner Bros.’ superhero sequel debuts concurrently in theaters and streaming on HBO Max the same day, December 25. “Watch it INTHEATERS, where it is made safe to do so,” director Patty Jenkins implored her Twitter followers. “Check out the great work theaters have done to make it so!” Gal Gadot returns as the title character for this DC Comics blockbuster, the setting now updated from the World War I timeframe of 2017’s original film to the Reagan era for this second installment.
News of the World
Director Paul Greengrass reunites with his c star Tom Hanks for Universal’s Western drama. Set in 1870 and based on the 2016 novel by Paulette Jiles, Hanks plays a Civil War veteran tasked with returning an abducted girl (played by newcomer Helena Zengel) back to her family. The film debuts on Netflix streaming overseas, but Universal opted for a theatrical debut domestically.
Monster Hunter
Director Paul W.S. Anderson has made an entire career primarily helming video game adaptations, from 1995’s Mortal Kombat to all six installments in the 2002-16 Resident Evil franchise. He returns to the genre with the Sony / Screen Gems action fantasy Monster Hunter, about a group of military soldiers who… well, hunt monsters. The film will be released theatrically in the U.S., though it was pulled from theaters in China due to a joke that some found offensive to Chinese culture.
Promising Young Woman
Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan (An Education, The Great Gatsby) plays the title character in this dark comedy thriller from Focus Features. A woman regularly pretends to be deliriously intoxicated at clubs so that men will take her home and sleep with her, except she doesn’t actually sleep with them—instead, she takes revenge on her would-be rapists. Read our exclusive interview with director Emerald Fennell here.
Courtesy of Lionsgate / EPK.tv
Fatale
Lionsgate, the fifth-highest grossing studio of 2019, hadn’t released a single new film theatrically since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March. But now they’re finally back with Fatale, a thriller starring Academy Award winner Hilary Swank as a police detective investigating the man with whom she was having an affair.
The Croods: A New Age
The top film at the box office for three consecutive weekends in November and December was Universal’s animated comedy sequel. Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, and Ryan Reynolds voice members of a prehistoric Flintstones-style family. It’s also been the second-highest grossing film at the domestic theatrical box office since the pandemic hit in March, behind only Tenet.
Pinocchio
A 2019 Italian film adaptation of the classic story about a puppet brought to life was a success in that country, topping their local box office during Christmas week of last year. So it only made sense to dub it into English and release the film for Christmas of this year domestically, distributed by Roadside Attractions. Academy Award winner Roberto Benigni (Life is Beautiful) plays the puppet master Geppetto; the actor played Pinocchio himself in a prior 2002 adaptation.
Die Hard (2020 re-release)
Is the 1988 action thriller starring Bruce Willis, which took place on Christmas Eve, a Christmas movie? In a recent 12,000-person online poll, 60 percent of respondents said no—although the film’s co-screenwriter Steven E. de Souza says it is. Regardless, enough people still consider it a Christmas movie that the film has earned a theatrical re-release for the holiday season.
Elf (2020 re-release)
“I’m a cotton-headed ninny muggins” indeed. Will Ferrell’s turn as Buddy the Elf’s misadventures after traveling from the North Pole to New York City made this 2003 comedy, directed by Jon Favreau, a modern Christmas classic. This year’s re-release came in third place at the box office for the December 11-13 weekend. Just be sure to order popcorn at the concession stand and not Buddy’s favorite dish of spaghetti topped with maple syrup and chocolate fudge.
The Polar Express (2020 re-release)
Based on the picture book by Chris Van Allsburg, the 2004 motion capture animated fantasy about a boy who travels to the North Pole stars Tom Hanks in multiple roles. This marked the third collaboration between Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis, along with 1994’s Forrest Gump and 2000’s Cast Away.
Courtesy: Focus Features (EPK.tv)
Half Brothers
Focus Features’ comedy follows two half-siblings, polar opposites by personality who only just learn of each other’s existence and embark on a road trip together. Luke Greenfield (The Girl Next Door) directs.
Freaky
Universal’s dark comedy slasher horror stars Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton as a middle-aged serial killer who switches bodies with a high school girl. Director Christopher Landon is no stranger to the horror-comedy genre, having helmed Happy Death Day and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.
The War with Grandpa
Spending its first 10 weekends in the box office top five after its October release, 101 Studios’ family comedy stars Robert De Niro getting into an increasingly fraught prank war with his grandson. Read our interview with producers Marvin, Rosa, and Tre Peart here.
Limited or Platform Releases
These films may not be playing wide theatrically next week, but you might still able to catch them on the big screen during this holiday season, especially if you live in or near a major city.
The Dissident
This documentary focuses on the 2018 murder of outspoken Washington Post opinion columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the behest of the Saudi Arabian government. Director Bryan Fogel previously won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for Icarus, about the Russian sports doping scandal.
One Night in Miami
This fictionalized version follows the real-life night of February 25, 1964, when four legendary African-American men spent the night together: boxer Muhammad Ali, activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke, and NFL player Jim Brown. Based on the stage play by Kemp Powers, Amazon Prime Video is giving the film a platform theatrical run.
Solo Brathuke So Better
This Telugu-language romantic comedy from India, the title of which roughly translates to Living Single is So Much Better, follows a man who vows to remain single and unmarried throughout his 20s… until, of course, a woman enters his life who upends all his plans.
Herself
Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia! and The Iron Lady) directs this tale of an Irish woman who builds her own house as a refuge as the rest of her life is falling apart.
Pieces of a Woman
Vanessa Kirby plays the titular woman in this awards contender tearjerker about a married couple trying to resuscitate their lives in the aftermath of a home birth where their baby dies. Netflix is giving the film a platform theatrical run.
Shadow in the Cloud
Chloë Grace Moretz stars as a female fighter pilot during World War II, who has to battle both misogyny and an evil spirit aboard one of her flights in this supernatural historical action film.
Hunter Hunter
IFC Midnight’s suspense thriller follows a family living out in the woods, whose lives are threatened by a ravenous predator wolf. The shark genre has seen numerous films through the decades, but the wolf genre remains relatively untrodden ground.
Zombie Bro
In this horror-comedy, a boy zombie must be stopped by his normal (non-zombie) human sister. During this current pandemic, of course, living under the same roof as a zombie may only be the second-biggest risk to your health.
Strong Technical Services, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ballantyne Strong, Inc., has completed the installation of projection equipment for IPic Theater’s newest location in Midtown Atlanta at the Colony Square. Strong Technical Services (STS) installed projection systems complete with an advanced load balanced and fault tolerant network to support projection booth equipment, a streaming content library, and a large QSC Q-SYS ecosystem across the entire complex.
“IPic Atlanta allowed STS to push the limits of a traditional booth network,” said Blake Titman, vice president and general manager, Strong Technical Services. “Our engineering team has been hard at work developing a new converged network architecture for theatres that can support a broad range of new technologies such as QSC Q-SYS, AV over IP for streaming applications, and in-theatre gaming. Strong Technical Services’ engineering, 24x7x365 support, and nationwide field service capabilities are unmatched when combined with our integrated technology and product solutions.”
“In partnership with STS we are able to install the latest applications and updates to the ever-changing technology of digital cinema,” said Paul Safran, CEO and general counsel of IPIC Theaters. “The new network architecture is the next step for a stable streaming environment of studio content as well as alternative content.”
U.S. movie theater owners today applauded the bipartisan COVID relief agreement that includes a $15 billion lifeline of grants to movie theaters, live entertainment venues, live theaters, and museums. The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) expressed gratitude for the tireless and unwavering bipartisan advocacy of the Save Our Stages cosponsors Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Reps. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Roger Williams (R-TX); Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA); Senate and House Small Business Committee Chairs Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Nydia Velazquez (D-NY); Ranking Members Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Steve Chabot (R-OH); and all the many other cosponsors on behalf of this vital cultural, community, and economic engine.
John Fithian, President and CEO of NATO, said, “With multiple vaccines beginning to roll out, we see a bright light at the end of a very dark tunnel. There is a very real chance that our business can begin to return to normal in the spring. This bipartisan agreement, shepherded by Senators Schumer, Cornyn and Klobuchar, means that the vast majority of small and mid-size U.S. movie theaters and their employees will have the resources to make it through to the end of that tunnel. We urge its immediate implementation”
Theater owners are also gratified by the extension of the Paycheck Protection Program, EIDL grants, and the additional funding for unemployment insurance. Without federal aid, NATO estimates that 70 percent of mid-size and smaller movie theaters in the country could file for bankruptcy or close permanently within months. More than 70,000 jobs could be lost permanently.
NATO continues to seek help for larger movie theater companies not covered by this legislation, which provide tens of thousands of jobs, and operate more than half the movie screens in the country, through tax relief and state aid.
