EXCLUSIVE: Updated with figures for Infamous…For a second time, Universal/Blumhouse’s Elisabeth Moss horror movie The Invisible Man has taken the top spot at the box office.
That win, in the pic’s 16th weekend, reps its second No. 1 finish since opening over the February 28-March 1 weekend, thus stepping on the nine-week streak of the studio’s DreamWorks Animation sequel Trolls World Tour, $383,000 to $275,700.
In fact, Universal’s movies — despite all the hullabaloo about Judd Apatow’s The King of Staten Island being pulled from theaters at the last minute, some reporting over “terms” — owned six spots in this weekend’s top 10 (eight in the top 20 if you count their rerelease of Jaws with $116K and Focus Features’ The High Note, which did $59K at 64 locales for a running three-weekend total of $293K).
Universal wouldn’t have shied away from another title in the distressed marketplace if they could, but as we told you its last-minute decision to pull King of Staten Island stemmed from the filmmakers wanting to keep the movie strictly on PVOD.
A studio source says about the booking of the Judd Apatow-directed Pete Davidson movie, “It was a misunderstanding, and we asked for those theaters that had booked it, not to play it.”
As we reported Friday, exhibitors we spoke with had zero problems with Uni’s terms — in fact they said that the studio was generous with some indies seeing a 60% share. It’s interesting that the studio, which has taken a licking from theater owners over their theatrical-PVOD aspirations, is supplying those indie theaters and drive-ins, which are braving it during COVID-19 with the most product.
No PVOD numbers have leaked from solid sources on King of Staten Island despite news that the Pete Davidson title was No. 1 on digital across Amazon Prime Video, Comcast Xfinity, Apple TV, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube, DirecTV and FandangoNow. And why would revenue numbers leak? Exhibition would be in a great uproar over lost revenue if the dramedy’s figures were a windfall.
Other notables this weekend include solid holds from indie genre pics: Quiver’s Becky, $187,600, -9%) for a near half million in Weekend 2, and IFC’s seventh weekend of The Wretched with $148,400, and a running total near $1.4M. Another genre highlight from this past weekend was the Vertical Entertainment PVOD and theatrical release of the Bella Thorne action caper Infamous, about two young lovers who rob their way across the Southland. The pic clocked over $160K at 54 theaters in updated actuals from the distributor.
Other takeaways from this weekend in which there were roughly 988 theaters open:
— Of the top 105 grossing theaters in the country, 102 of them were drive-ins, with the Palladium 19 & Imax in San Antonio the top-grossing hard-top, ranking No. 95 making only $12K. The top-five grossing theaters from last weekend were Cine-Parc drive-in Saint-Eustache, Canada ($168K), Ford Wyoming Drive-in in Dearborn, MI ($136K), the Cine-Parc Mont-Saint-Hilaire Drive-in in Quebec ($85K), the Sacramento 6 Drive-in ($77K), and the Mission Tikki 4 drive-in in Montclair, CA ($67K). The numbers just go down from there.
— As we mentioned last weekend, those curious about moviegoing spending trends during the course of the weekend despite the smaller footprint of theaters and largely older product on the marquee, all titles show an uptick Saturday from Friday, and a fall between Saturday and Sunday. A sampling: the Friday-to-Saturday bumps for some movies were Invisible Man (+20%), Trolls World Tour (+23%) and Infamous (+19%).
Here is the weekend box office per industry estimates for June 12-14, another frame of big circuit shutdown since the COVID-19 outbreak in mid-March:
1..The Invisible Man (Uni/Blumhouse) 147 (+26) theaters, 3-day: $383K (+37%), cume $67.8M/Wk 16
2..Trolls World Tour (Uni) 248 (+51) theaters 3-day: $275,700 (-9%), cume: $3.6M/Wk 10
3..Back to the Future (Uni) 91 theaters, 3-day: $263,200/Running lifetime cume: $211.4M/Wk 1 of 2020 reissue
4..The Hunt (Uni) 83 (+19) theaters, 3-day: $227,800 (+21%), cume: $8.1M/Wk 14
5..Jumanji: The Next Level (Sony) 92 theaters (+24) 3-day: $212,700 (+26%), cume: $323M/Wk 27
6..E.T. (Uni) 78 theaters, 3-day: $195K/lifetime cume: $435.3M/Wk 1 of 2020 reissue
7..Becky (Quiver) 50 theaters (+5), 3-day: $187,600 (-9%), cume: $482,6K /wk 2
8…Infamous (Vertical) 54 theaters, 3-day: $160,300/Wk 1
9..Jurassic Park (Uni) 132 theaters, 3-day: $158,700,lifetime cume: $403M /wk 1 of 2020 reissue
10..The Goonies (WB) 136 theaters (+70) 3-day: $154,700 (+39%), lifetime cume: $62.7M/Wk 2 of 2020 reissue
11..The Wretched (IFC) 99 theaters (-), 3-day: $148,400 (-25%), cume: $1.37M/Wk 7