EXCLUSIVE: Steven Spielberg’s 1993 movie Jurassic Park was No. 1 for the fourth time in its release history this past weekend as movie theaters tried to have a semblance during the COVID-19 pandemic over what is typically a big moviegoing weekend, Father’s Day.
While 2020 fare like Universal/Dreamworks Animation’s Trolls World Tour had been leading at a still distressed box office for 9 weekends (with the exception of last weekend when The Invisible Man returned to the top of the chart), catalog titles dominated the majority of this weekend with Universal’s Jurassic Park earning $517,6K at 230 sites and the studio’s Jaws taking $516,3K at 187 locations. Those respective No. 1 and 2 weekend takes are improvements upon last weekend’s Invisible Man at $383K and Trolls World Tour with $275,7K.
Jurassic Park held the No. 1 spot at the box office in its first three weekends of release following its June 11, 1993 opening. There was a 2013 re-issue of the movie and that release over the April 5-7 weekend made $18.6M in 4th place. That reissue contributed $45.3M to the pic’s domestic gross of $404.3M.
Even though the exhibition footprint is gradually increasing, up to roughly 1,100 theaters this past weekend, +112 cinemas, drive-ins numbering at around 300, continue to drive the weekend’s business, with 160 of the top grossing 201 cinemas being drive-Ins according to an industry box office report obtained by Deadline. The Ford Wyoming Drive-in in Dearborn, MI was the top grossing venue with $127,3K, followed by the Cine-Drive in Saint Eustache, Quebec with $105,4K, the Sacramento 6 with $71,2K, the Mission Tikki 4 in Montclair, CA with $61,8K and the Aut-o-rama Twin Drive-in in North Ridgeville, OH with $60,1K.
Of the hard-top multiplexes that were open, the top grossing was Megaplex Theatres at the District in South Jordan, UT ($14,6K) followed by the Palladium 19 in Santa Antonio, TX ($11,2K). The numbers just slide from there and are even more depressing. Cinemark, for example, reopened three venues on Friday to unspectacular weekend results: The chain’s Dallas 17 ($855), the West Plano 20 ($1,5K) and North McKinney locations ($1K). Again, this past weekend was expected to be a test-drive for Cinemark in its COVID-19 safety ops before wider reopenings on July 3, 10, and 17, and the circuit is largely playing titles from earlier this year like Sonic the Hedgehog, Invisible Man and The Hunt as well as catalog titles such Wonder Woman, Jaws, Back to the Future, Get Out and The Matrix.
According to a Comscore report today, those states with the most theaters open are Texas (82), Ohio (56), Iowa (47), Florida (39), Minnesota (39), Indiana (37), Pennsylvania (34), Kansas (28), Tennessee (28), and Wisconsin (26).
Of the new titles this weekend that cracked the top 10, Atlas Entertainment’s horror movie Followed grossed $127,2K at 42 locations in the No. 8 spot. Directed by Antoine Le and starring Sam Valentine, Tim Drier, Karan Sagoo, John Savage and Blanca Blanco, Followed follows a controversial social media influencer who stays at a cursed hotel to terrifying results, only so that he can get more subscribers.
Here is the weekend box office per industry estimates for June 19-21:
1..Jurassic Park (Uni) 230 (+98) theaters, 3-day: $517,600 (+226%),lifetime cume: $404.3M /wk no. 1,411
2…Jaws (Uni) 187 theaters, 3-day: $516,300, lifetime cume: $263.9M/wk. no. 2,349
3..The Invisible Man (Uni/Blumhouse) 157 (+10) theaters, 3-day: $201,300 (-47%), cume $68.4M/Wk 17
4..Trolls World Tour (Uni) 289 (+41) theaters 3-day: $160,000 (-42%), cume: $3.9M/Wk 11
5..The Hunt (Uni) 95 (+12) theaters, 3-day: $136,700 (-40%), cume: $8.4M/Wk 15
6..Back to the Future (Uni) 122 theaters (+91), 3-day: $131,600 (-50%)/Running lifetime cume: $214.3M/wk 1,825
7. Followed (Atlas) 42 theaters, 3-day: $127,231/Wk 1
8..E.T. (Uni) 100 theaters (+22), 3-day: $126,100 (-35%)/lifetime cume: $435.4M/Wk 1,985
9..Jumanji: The Next Level (Sony) 97 theaters (+5) 3-day: $117,900 (-44%), cume: $323.2M/Wk 28
10..The Goonies (WB) 170 theaters (+34) 3-day: $110,850 (-28%), lifetime cume: $65.6M/Wk 1,829