Though New York cinemas are back in action, U.S. box-office numbers still have a long way to go to reach pre-pandemic levels.
Disney Animation’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” opened on Friday, the film scoring a theatrical day and date release in cinemas and on Disney+ as a $30 premium purchase. It was one of three new wide releases at this weekend’s box office and managed to reach 2,045 screens.
It had a lot in its favor, including strong critical and audience reviews. But the film is estimated to only bring in $8.3 million for the weekend.
That’s only a little over half of the $14.1 million that Warners’ “Tom and Jerry” did last weekend and that film also had a day and date release (via cinemas and HBO Max). In fact it’s less than the $9.7 million “Croods: A New Age” opened to over Thanksgiving on a smaller number of screens.
According to Deadline, exhibitors are reportedly concerned by the comments made by Disney CEO Bob Chapek recently suggesting Disney could be moving forward with a theatrical day and date Disney+ model in some form.
Unlike with the Warners/HBO Max deal for this year in which exhibitors have made a deal, Disney isn’t budging on its terms and is keeping all the ‘Premier Access’ revenue for itself with one buy for the studio equating to what they would’ve received from five or six movie ticket purchases.
To put that in perspective, a recent billion-dollar Disney animated grosser like “Finding Dory” sold an estimated 85 million tickets at the box-office, which would equate to a film requiring 15-17 million ‘Premier Access’ purchases worldwide to match it.
All eyes are now turning toward “Black Widow” in May and whether Disney will adopt a similar approach there, a time when the box-office is also expected to be in better shape and a movie far likely to be a bigger pull to get audiences back to cinemas than “Raya”. For now, that movie is still slated for a theatrical only release on May 7th.
Also opening this weekend was Lionsgate’s long-delayed “Chaos Walking” which wasn’t just a critical bomb but a commercial one as well. That $100 million-budgeted film starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley is headed for a $3.7 million opening weekend and is coming off terrible reviews with a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s a double blow for well-liked Holland whose other non-Marvel and much-publicised film “Cherry” snagged reviews that were only a little better (38%) and which opened last weekend in limited release to little fanfare.
