Onward and Downward as Weekend Box Office Slows to a Crawl

Onward and downward as weekend box office slows to a crawl

In its second frame Pixar’s animated flick Onward led the weakest cumulative weekend box office results since 1995 due to fears of the COVID-19 virus, with many movie theaters either closing or at diminished capacity. With all new wide releases postponed until April 10 at the earliest, and many North American cities now shuttering theaters, restaurants, bars, and other large gathering places entirely in an effort to quarantine the public from the virus, this may well represent the last gasp of moviegoing for the foreseeable future. Luckily we can all retreat to the safe comfort of streaming, VOD and Blu-ray for the time being until the studios can recalibrate for what’s to come.

Onward itself dropped 73% from last weekend to hold onto the #1 slot with $10.5 million for a domestic cume of $61 million and $101.7 million worldwide. Given the current world climate it seems unlikely the film will be able to inch its way to even $200 million, and will likely finish its run as the lowest-grossing Pixar movie of all-time, taking the title from 2015’s The Good Dinosaur.

Following close behind at #2 is Lionsgate’s faith-based release I Still Believe, which brought in $9.5 million. The Christian romance stars KJ Apa and Britt Robertson.

Opening at #3 was Sony’s Bloodshot, the Vin Diesel starrer that was hoped to kick off a string of films based on the Valiant Comics universe. Its poor reviews and $9.3 million weekend take do not make a strong case towards building a franchise for The Deez. Internationally it brought in $15.1 million for a $25.6 million worldwide total.

Universal’s The Invisible Man continues to be a horror hit with $6 million at #4 for $64.4 million domestic and a $122.7 million worldwide total. For a movie that cost only $7 million and is undoubtedly missing out on even larger numbers here and internationally due to the current climate, that’s still a VERY impressive run so far.

Unfortunately Universal has had nothing but bad luck with their other Blumhouse horror title The Hunt, which got delayed from September and has now opened to a paltry $5.7 million. It’s likely an unfortunate end to a film that will hopefully find an audience more receptive to its bold satire and gross-out gags on home video.