US Box Office: analysis for the week end of March 6 - 8

Disney earned top spot at the weekend box office with its opening of Onward.  The PG-rated animated family film from Pixar Studios brought in $40M on 4300+ screens in North America. Universal and Blumhouse Productions' The Invisible Man continued to perform well in its second week in theatres, earning $15.2M for the weekend and a $52.7M cume after 10 days. Warner Bros. opened The Way Back, an R-rated drama starring Ben Affleck in a story of the destructive power of addition and the redeeming power of organized sports. The film has received positive reviews and brought in $8.5M for the weekend.

Our Industry News roundup focuses on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the film and exhibition industry. We track reports on theater closures in China and Italy as well as greatly reduced attendance in certain other global markets. We point out articles discussing the impact to industry events and conferences, some of which have have been cancelled - South by Southwest, which was scheduled to begin one week from today - and some of which are still on track - CinemaCon is scheduled to begin three weeks from today. We discuss how studios execs are weighing the decision whether to push back certain major film releases in response to the uncertainty.

We also highlight an article from the Wall Street Journal on the imperative for exhibitors to bring "continuous improvement" to their theatres.  Expensive though this can be, a great entertainment experience can produce great attendance and revenues.

Gower Street's Rolling 12-Month Box Office Forecast now extends through February 2021.  Gower's analysts project that results from February 2021 will exceed those of February 2020 by more than 17% and February 2019 by just over 2%.  However, all eyes are focused on how the box office is shifting next month, due to the uncertain environment in exhibition and the rescheduling of No Time To Die from 4/10 to 11/25.  In the Hollywood Report, Martin Grove points out that one reason why No Time To Die was moved is that the Bond franchise has a particular appeal to global audiences.

We conclude with our regular film data and tables: the Weekly Film Calendar covering releases over the next six weeks, recently announced Studio Release Changes, a list of Recent Industry Screenings, the latest MPAA film ratings and a list of Notable New Trailers released last week.