Business Review of the Pandemic Box-Office
The box office during the pandemic has not been good, you don’t need me to tell you that, the reasons are glaringly obvious too. However, just how bad is it? Will Hollywood ever be able to recover from the slump the pandemic has caused, and will changes in the way we consume media have a permanent effect on this multi-billion dollar industry. Lets start by having a look at the movies that did release during 2020…
Tenet
Tenet was the only hotly-anticipated summer blockbusters that actually released worldwide (in regions where cinema’s were open) and managed to earn around 360 million (to date) in box office sales worldwide. It most certainly fell short of expectations for a Christopher Nolan thriller. Tenet was reportedly Nolan’s most expensive project to date, the production budget is said to be 200 million however many trades have speculated that actual budget could be around 350 million VFX and marketing costs included. If this is taken to be true then Tenet as of currently has earned back the money it took to make, but there is very little to no profit for Warner Brothers. The film ideally needed to have box office sales above 400 million to break even.
When you break down the revenue by region Tenet performed well in Asia, particularly in China and South Korea. Tenet made 66.6 million (to date) in China and in South Korea pre-sales tickets were sold out within minutes of being available, the film roughly made around 19 million (to date) in South Korea. Tenet was released in Europe but struggled due to lockdown restrictions, in the UK the film earned around 36 million (to date), other major markets in Europe included Germany and France. Tenet struggled immensely in the North American, an area where under normal circumstances it would have triumphed.
Tenet was released to generally positive reviews and despite being directed by an incredible director, it was not enough to save it. In Asia, where big budget actions movies are eagerly awaited, Tenet did tentatively lure some movie goers to go to cinema’s but it failed to do the same in Europe and North America.
Wonder Woman 1984
Many movies were swiftly moved to 2021's and 2022’s release schedule when the pandemic hit, mostly because many of these movies would not be able to complete production on time and production companies wanted to release movies later when the box office was open to make most profit. The movies was finally released Christmas day on both HBO Max and cinemas (in available regions worldwide). The film released to both mixed critical and audience reviews. Wonder Woman 1984 has grossed $46.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $120 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $166.1 million. The film suffered in China and Asian regions, it released in China to an extremely small box office which only kept dwindling as the weeks went by. This was a massive blow for WW84, the first Wonder Woman was incredibly popular in China, it made upwards of 89 million indicating an extremely strong opening. The lack of action in the movie, and lack luster early audience response surely hindered many from venturing to go see it on cinemas.
On HBO Max however, it is said that WW84 helped HBO Max reach in excess of 40 million subscribers, a target they didn’t expect to reach this early. It was also reported that WW84 had the best viewership rates across all streaming services during Christmas week (according to Nielsen data), 2.25 billion minutes were spent watching WW84 over the first 3 days of its release on HBO Max. This is surprising as HBO Max had the least amount of subscribers as compared to Disney Plus or Netflix and still came out on top.
The Croods: A New Age
Perhaps the only real winner at the pandemic box office was Croods: A New Age. The sleeper hit released in late November, has since then has garnered 163 million at the box office against a 65 million production budget. Not only has it been the only movie that has successfully been playing in cinemas for many months now, it has outlasted Tenet and WW84 in their box office run. The movie has consecutively been making 4–5 million every week, and with cinemas opening slowly across the US now, it is expected that Croods 2 will continue to keep making money. Croods 2 is also on top in PVOD ratings, constantly trending on iTunes as well.
This allows us to safely assume the only winner at the pandemic box office would likely have been children and family oriented movies, parents are surely desperate to keep their kids occupied while schools are closed. This has not only allows Croods 2 to a sleeper hit, the only movie that made profit during the pandemic but has also accelerated the success of Disney Plus.
