411 Box Office Report: Onward a Weak #1 For Second Weekend, Bloodshot Opens Soft Amid Pandemic Concerns

Pixar’s Onward held onto the #1 spot at the box office this weekend, but not in a way to be proud of thanks in part to the coronavirus pandemic. The animated film brought in $10.5 million this weekend to top the weekend. However, that was down a massive 73% from last weekend, easily the heftiest drop for a Pixar film to date. The previous biggest drops were 61% for The Good Dinosaur in 2015 and 60% for Cars 2 in 2011.

Obviously, this is not good for a film that hit the low end of its expectations last week and almost certainly had the typical nine-figure budget of a Pixar animated film. That said, this isn’t specifically the film’s fault. As will be made obvious as we go down the list, the COVID-19 pandemic had a serious effect on the box office. In the US, over 100 theaters have been shut down in major markets across the country to stymie the spread of the virus and the total box office for the weekend of all films combined was $55.2 million, the lowest total weekend since October 30th through November 1st, 1998.

That situation had a noticeable effect on Onward, which is looking like it will probably be a money loser for the studio. As of now it stands at $60.3 million domestically and $101.7 million worldwide and unless it picks up with international numbers once theaters reopen, it will easily be Pixar’s lowest-grossing film to date.

Opening at #2 was Lionsgate’s I Still Believe, which brought in $9.5 million. All the new releases were below their expected starts; in I Still Believe’s case, it missed the expected $10 million to $15 million start. Again, this is likely due to concern over the virus. The film was marketed heavily to its faith-based aspects, which usually has a pretty good track record, and while critics were lukewarm on it with a 43% Rotten Tomatoes score, faith-based dramas tend to be critic-proof. The audience members who did see it loved it, with an A CinemaScore.

I Still Believe isn’t in particularly bad shape, to be fair. The impact of the good word of mouth is evidenced with a solid Saturday bump, which means the film could still turn up a solid number. Last April’s Breakthrough had a similar vibe and opened to $11.3 million on its way to a $40.7 million total. If this film follows Breakthrough’s trend, it should finish in the mid-$30 million range which would be an okay total for a film that cost around $10 million to $12 million.

Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot opened at #3 with $9.3 million, which was more or less in the $8 million to $12 million range that analysts were expecting. While meeting expectations going into the weekend would normally be a good sign, these were pretty lowered expectations for the Valiant Comics adaptation. It’s a lackluster start for a comic book film, especially considering there were hopes that it would kick off a shared universe franchise for Valiant.

We can chalk this one up to the fact that there simply wasn’t much interest in this film. The marketing efforts didn’t score with audiences and while there was some hope when the film started with $1.2 million from Thursday previews, the film proved to be very front-loaded. Critic scores didn’t help with the interest, with an aggregate score of 31% on RT. Audiences gave the film a B CinemaScore, which isn’t bad but won’t help ease the film’s front-loaded nature.

The bigger problem with Bloodshot is that Sony was expecting the film to play well overseas where the coronavirus is having a much stronger effect due to governmental edicts. Bloodshot has just $15.1 million so far overseas for a $24.4 million worldwide total. That’s not going to be enough for a film that cost $45 million before marketing to be profitable. All bets are off right now about where this one could end up — or any film due to the possibility that more theaters are shut down — but the best estimate for Bloodshoot would be around $25 million or so domestically. So much for the Valiant Cinematic Universe.

The Invisible Man, like all the holdovers this weekend, felt the sting of people staying from public places with a 60% drop in its third weekend to $6 million. That puts the horror reimagining at a still-very-profitable $64.4 million domestically and $122.7 million worldwide against a $7 million budget. The film will probably end its run at around $80 million in the US, more than enough for Universal and Blumhouse Productions to be ecstatic.

The controversial action-thriller The Hunt disappointed with just $5.3 million. The film finished out its first weekend below expectations of the high single digits range. It’s hard to put too much on this film due to the pandemic aspect, but it is worth noting that this weekend was a rescheduling from its 2019 release date due to the politically-tinged plot of liberal elitists hunting conservatives for sport being deemed a bad film to release following the Dayton and El Paso mass shootings last August.

Universal and Blumhouse clearly weren’t afraid of the controversy; after the new release date was officially scheduled, they deliberately marketed it around the controversy as “The Most Talked-About Movie of the Year That No One’s Actually Seen” as well as a much-improved trailer. It’s hard to tell if the backlash had anything to do with that, but controversial films have a spotty record of nailing their attempts to capitalize on said controversy. Regardless, the film could at least break even without too much trouble as it only cost $14 million to produce. The domestic total might hit as high as $20 million, and if it scores any kind of money overseas (obviously, a very uncertain proposition) it could end up at least not a loss.

Sonic the Hedgehog was down 67% in its fifth weekend with $2.6 million. The Paramount video game adaptation is of course already a hit with $145.8 million domestically and $299.6 million worldwide against a budget of $95 million. Its final domestic should come in at $155 million or so.

Ben Affleck’s The Way Back sunk in its second weekend with $2.4 million, down 70% from its opening weekend. Again, blame COVID-19 in large part, but that’s not going to make the eventual red ink any easier to stomach for Warner Bros. who shelled out $23 million plus marketing. The film now has $13.4 million domestically and $14.1 million worldwide, and will probably fall short of $20 million by the end of its domestic run.

Call of the Wild was off 67% in its fourth weekend with $2.2 million. The literary adaptation is up to $62.1 million domestically and $107.3 million worldwide. It’s a big loser for 20th Century Studios (and therefore Disney) to the likely tune of $50 million or more. It should finish off its domestic run at around $70 million.

Emma freefell 71% to $1.4 million in its fourth weekend (the second in wide release). The Anya Taylor-Joy-starring film is now at $10 million domestically and $25.1 million worldwide. There’s no word on its budget, but it should end its domestic run at around $15 million domestically.

Bad Boys For Life closed out the top ten with $1.1 million, down 64% in its ninth weekend. The action sequel is now up to $204.3 million domestically and $417.6 million worldwide. It should end its run at around $208 million domestically before it exits theaters.

Next weekend should see Onward remain on top unless it falls further than I Still Believe or Bloodshot, as there are no new wide releases coming out. In fact, there are no new wide releases currently scheduled until April 10th, so get used to seeing this films in the top 10 for the next few weeks.

BOX OFFICE TOP TEN (Three-Day Domestic Numbers)
1. Onward – $10.5 million ($60.3 million total)
2. I Still Believe – $9.5 million ($9.5 million total)
3. Bloodshot – $9.3 million – ($9.3 million total)
4. The Invisible Man – $6 million ($64.4 million total)
5. The Hunt – $5.3 million ($5.3 million total)
6. Sonic The Hedgehog – $2.6 million ($145.8 million total)
7. The Way Back – $2.4 million ($13.4 million total)
8. Call of the Wild – $2.2 million ($62.1 million total)
9. Emma. – $1.4 million ($10 million total)
10. Bad Boys For Life – $1.1 million ($204.3 million total)