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Is the box office back?
Hollywood is hoping for that, with Universal Pictures reporting that the ninth installment of the Fast & Furious series, “F9: The Fast Saga,” is expected to earn $68 million on 4,179 screens — the largest theatrical hit for a single movie since the pandemic led to the shutdown. the film. Film and theater work March 2020.
The opening receipts for the series, which began 20 years ago and collected $6.2 billion in total global box office revenue, fall within the range of previous iterations of the racing game series — which had its peak in 2015 when Furious 7 took in $147 million over its first weekend, and in Rock bottom in 2006 with “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” which grossed only $23.9 million in its opening weekend.
Internationally, the new movie has already grossed over $300 million, with the majority of ticket sales coming from China, where “F9” recently crossed $200 million.
For Universal Pictures, the opening success is vindication for a studio that decided in the early days of the pandemic to postpone its potential film for a full year — a move deemed excessive when it was announced in early March 2020.
“In hindsight, it turned out to be a really great decision,” Donna Langley, president of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, said in an interview on Saturday. “We had a range of scenarios from best to worst, and this is the best.”
Directed by Justin Lin and starring Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez, “F9” isn’t the first movie to do well since movie theaters began reopening. Paramount’s gamble to delay the release of A Quiet Place 2 also paid off. While the studio has sold some of its other properties, including “Coming 2 America” and the upcoming “The Tomorrow War” to itchy broadcasters for additional content, it has kept “A Quiet Place 2,” John Krasinski’s horror-directed sequel, As of Memorial Day weekend last month, it grossed $135 million in the United States and more than $200 million worldwide.
Others weren’t so lucky. For example, Warner Bros. Entertainment’s “In the Heights” was silent in theaters despite rave reviews from critics. Since opening simultaneously in theaters and on the company’s streaming service, HBO Max, on June 11, the Broadway adaptation of Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical has earned just $22.5 million.
daily business briefing
updated
June 25, 2021, 5:12 PM ET
“I would call the market visited by cinemas over the past month ‘temporary,’” said David A. Gross, owner of Franchise Entertainment Research, a film consultancy. “It’s hard to get a clean read because streaming options are cluttered — they vary from movie to movie. .”
Indeed, the pandemic has accelerated Hollywood’s interest in experimenting with its feature film release patterns, and this flexibility is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
While moviegoers can only see “Quiet Place” and “Fast 9” in theaters, most of the other new releases released in the past month have offered consumers multiple viewing options, blurring the eventual success of these long-awaited films. For example, Disney’s “Cruella” has grossed nearly $71 million since it opened May 28, in addition to what it earned charging customers $30 to watch it on the company’s streaming service, Disney+.
The movie industry has high expectations for Marvel’s return to theaters, but “Black Widow,” starring Scarlett Johansson, won’t be a theatrical exclusive; It will also be available on Disney+ for an additional fee. In contrast, Warner Bros. “Space Jam: A New Legacy” is free to consumers on HBO Max when it opens in theaters, similar to Universal’s “Boss Baby” sequel, which, in a rare twist for the studio, is releasing in theaters for free on its streaming service, Peacock.
Are all these launch strategies confusing for moviegoers?
Mrs. Langley doesn’t think so. “Consumers definitely seem to be looking for movies, whether it’s in the theater or on any one of the streaming devices,” she said. “I think the question is what he says about the impact of that on theatrical productions.”
Mr Gross says it will take some time to resolve the issue.
“You are not going to shut down a $42 billion project for 15 months, rearrange the pieces and expect to be back to full strength within a month or two,” he said. “The effects of the pandemic will take some time to heal. The new normal is coming – it is not here yet.”
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