North American box office hits lowest levels in 20 years

It’s no secret that fears over the spread of the Coronavirus are wrecking havoc in the entertainment industry (and also pretty much every industry), as more and more studios put projects on hold while we wait to see how this all plays out. Movie theaters have been especially hard hit, because who wants to sit in a room with dozens of strangers when the whole point is to avoid contact with people lest you contract the virus? You know Idris Elba has it now?

While movie theaters in the United States are still technically open, some are committing to only sell enough tickets to fill theaters at half capacity. Meanwhile, countries like China, South Korea, Italy and others have shut down theaters partially or completely. The end result of all of this is that the box office had a really crummy weekend.

How crummy? According to Variety, ticket sales were at their lowest level since the weekend of September 15, 2000, when theatergoers chose between seeing such films as The Watcher, a psychological thriller starring Keanu Reeves; weak Jamie Foxx vehicle Bait; or cheerleading movie Bring It On, which is actually kind of a cult classic nowadays but people didn’t know it back then. All in all, Norther American tickets sales dropped 45% from last weekend to make just $55.3 million, which is still a good amount of money, but probably not enough to pay everyone in this industry over the long term.

The biggest earner over the weekend was Pixar’s Onward, which brought in $10.6 million. That’s a decent number, but if represents a precipitous 73% decline from its opening weekend. Then there’s the Christian-y romance I Still Believe in second with $9.6 million, Vin Diesel superhero thriller Bloodshot in third with $9.3 million, holdover The Invisible Man with $6 million, and The Hunt, a controversial political thriller, with $5.3 million.

Basically, we all knew that the movie industry was going to suffer during this period. The question is: how long will it last? Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution, is thinking positive. “These are unique circumstances,” he said. “But without a doubt, we will get to the other side. The domestic box office will be back, just nobody has a real answer as to when.”

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