Disney/Pixar’s Onward made $2 million on Thursday night in box office previews, according to the Burbank, CA studio, from shows that started at 6 PM.
Previous previews around this range include Disney’s Dumbo ($2.6M, $45.9M opening), Monsters University ($2.6M, $82.4M opening), Moana (which previewed on a Tuesday before Thanksgiving with $2.6M, 3-day of $56.6M, 5-day much greater due to Thanksgiving with $82M), Lego Batman Movie ($2.2M, $53M opening), Zootopia ($1.7M) and Big Hero 6 ($1.25M, off 7PM shows, $56.2M opening).
The expectation is that Onward opens to $40M+ at 4,310 theaters, down from the $50M we were seeing earlier this week. Many are curious whether the coronavirus scare will curb business at the box office, and looking at last night’s figures, it doesn’t look like it did. Plus, all movie chains are open.
Remember, spring breaks begin their rollout this weekend with Comscore saying 4% of K-12s are out today, moving to 12% Monday. That said, there was a great turnout by parents and kids under 12 last night, according to Comscore/Screen Engine PostTrak exits, which showed a combined 52%-48% general audience.
So far, it’s a great response to the Dan Scanlon-directed animated feature with general audiences giving Onward 4 1/2 stars, parents a fantastic 5 stars, and kids under 12, largely boys at 61%, an OK 3 1/2 stars. Overall guys under 25 lead at 29% followed by guys over 25 at 28%, then females over 25 at 23% and females under 25 at 20%. Diversity demos showed 52% Caucasian, 22% Hispanic, 12% Asian, and 8% African American.
Onward‘s theater footprint includes 400 Imax screens, 800 Premium Large Format screens, 2,300 3D locations, and 240 D-Box/4D screens. Last Saturday, for Leap Day, Disney held matinee previews for the Chris Pratt-Tom Holland movie at 470 locations in North America, reportedly selling out many shows and earning $650K in single 3pm showing. That money will be rolled into the first weekend’s total.
The weekend’s other wide entry, Warner Bros. Ben Affleck drama The Way Back did not hold previews last night, which as been standard of late for the studio with its adult-leaning fare. That Gavin O’Connor directed movie is expected to file in the high single digits, possibly $10M.
Outside of Onward‘s preview, among those pics in regular release, Universal/Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man earned $1.8M yesterday, -9% from Wednesday for a first week of $37.5M, -25% behind Uni/Blumhouse’s Get Out which ended its first week with $49.8M. No. 2 went to Disney/20th Century Studios Call of the Wild with $850K in its second Thursday, -4%, for a second week of $17.6M, running total of $50.3M. Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog made $815K, -8% in its third Thursday for a third week of $20.4M, running total of $132.7M. Sony’s Bad Boys for Life was 4th with $345K, -1%, for a 7th week of $5.9M, running total of $198.98M. It’s gotta go over $200M this weekend. Fifth is Warner Bros.’ Birds of Prey with $325K, -6% ,week 4 of $5.6M and running total of $80.3M. In 6th is Funimation/Sony Pictures TV’s My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising with $300K, -43%, a first week of $7.7M, and running total through nine days of $11.1M.