Weekend Box Office: Unhinged Scores a Modest but Encouraging Opening

By Chris Kavan - 08/23/20 at 09:02 PM CT

The biggest question going into this weekend was where Russell Crowe's violent thriller would land as the first, big movie to open in a Covid-19 world. While the film was never going to have a massive opening (the exclusion of California and New York played a big factor) the question was would it have a good enough opening. It turns out that even with social distancing and other measures in effect, Unhinged scored a decent opening and a promising look into the future - provided things get better, not worse, in the next few months. Unhinged was the only new film to even top $1 million and the top 10 is filled with plenty of re-release films, so it's still going to be a bit of bumpy ride. As it stands, I'm going to cover the top three this week:

1) UNHINGED

Having the widest opening out of any film this week (1,823 screens), Unhinged easily took the crown with a $4.06 million debut. That is just below the debut of The Hunt ($5.03 million), which was the last major wide release before theaters shut down. Given the circumstances, and the fact that two of the biggest markets aren't even open yet, that has to be seen as a win. In fact, with Unhinged set to expand in coming weeks, the studio is banking on a $30 million domestic total - right along with its budget. In comparison, Russell Crowe's The Next Three Days only opened with $6.5 million back in 2010 when there wasn't a pandemic to worry about. And while it's going to face bigger competition in the coming weeks (New Mutants and Tenet to be exact), Unhinged should have little trouble staying on track. All in all, it seems like a good sign that people are ready to give theaters another chance - we'll see how things pan out in the coming weeks.


2) THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE ON THE RUN

The animated sequel (which actually serves as a prequel to SpongeBob as a whole) played in 326 theaters with $550,000 for a $1.4 million domestic total. As probably the only new family option for the weekend, that's not bad but I'm sure it will move on the VOD soon enough. Of course if more schools close and theaters remain open... well, there are options for entertainment. It look ridiculous next to the $162 million domestic total for Sponge Out of Water, but these are unprecedented times, so I'm sure the studio is happy to get this into theaters at all. I'm going out on a limb here and saying this one is going to stay on the modest side of things.




3) WORDS ON BATHROOM WALLS

Roadside Attractions teen-centric romance opened in 925 theaters for a $462,050 total. While is opened in nearly 3x the theaters as SpongeBob, it didn't play nearly as well and its $499 per-theater average is the lowest in the top 10 - and that includes all the re-release films as well. I'm guessing the target audience is dealing with bigger things (school is in session - for now) and thus didn't really provide as many box office sparks and adults flocked to Unhinged and couldn't be bothered with Charlie Plummer and his mental health struggles. I mean, as counter-programming goes, it was a fine effort but in the current situation, it just wasn't enough. This is going to be short-lived I'm sure as bigger and better films debut.




Outside the top three: Perhaps the biggest movie news of the weekend didn't come from the U.S. at all - but from China. Overseas, the delayed film The Eight Hundred opened with a massive $116.63 million. That makes is the first film to gross above $100 million since Sonic the Hedgehog back in mid-February (where is ended with a $146 million domestic total). And with that kind of opening, The Eight Hundred will not only top Sonic, but will probably be able to surpass Bad Boys for Life ($204 million) to become the biggest-grossing film of the entire year. Even if theaters continue to open, the only real competition looks to be from the likes of Wonder Woman 1984 or Black Widow - but neither is a sure thing, especially if the biggest markets continue to remain shut. China could very well have the highest-grossing film of the year on their hands.

Speaking of foreign films, Sang-ho Yeon's Train to Busan sequel, Peninsula, opened with $210,000 in 7th place. Seeing a film about a zombie pandemic in the middle of an actual pandemic seems a bit masochistic, but if the film continue to play in limited fashion, it could enjoy a modest run at the box office.

Also of note, Cut Throat City opened with $240,000 (5th place) in 395 theaters. The film follows a group of friends in post-Katrina New Orleans who, with nothing else left to lose, take on a dangerous heist in the heart of the city. Not a bad start given the subject matter.

Next week the long-delayed New Mutants opens and we'll have to see if all that time brings it any luck.

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