As Hollywood crosses its fingers and looks toward Tenet as the initial big-budget release of the coronavirus era, exhibitors were able to dip their toes this weekend with the first new title since March, the Russell Crowe action pic Unhinged.
As a canary in the Covid mine, Derrick Borte‘s road rage thriller grossed $4 million domestically this weekend according to The Hollywood Reporter. It showed in 1,823 theaters and will expand to 2,300 next week as more reopen. The percentage of available seats differ from state to state, as auditoriums remain limited due to social distancing measures.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic a $4 million opening weekend would hardly be cause to pop champagne, but THR says industry insiders are calling this a success. Unhinged is the first title produced and distributed by the new company Solstice Studios, and its CEO Mark Gill, a veteran from Warner Independent Pictures, Miramax, and Millennium Films, called the film’s bow “a huge relief” and said “it feels like we’re back in the movie business.”
V.F. critic Richard Lawson‘s review of Unhinged called the film, in which Crowe plays “a spree-killing golem built of many real real horrors,” a “nasty piece of work, jarringly rough but also, in fits and starts, bracing entertainment.”
There remains much debate about whether or not it is, indeed, safe to return to movie theaters. NATO, the National Association of Theater Owners, has initiated guidelines through a program called CinemaSafe in consultation with epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists.
While it’s true people mainly keep their mouths shut during movies (and will be encouraged to keep their masks on) the glaring sticking point remains that most theaters will continue to sell concessions. A New York Times report on the matter features a quote from an exhibition executive named Mooky Greidinger, who says “chewing (with one’s mouth closed) without a mask is considered safer than speaking without one.”
Only in 2020!
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