Page 29 - ARUBA TODAY

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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 16 March 2020
Ticket sales dive at box office;

lowest turnout in 20 years

By JAKE COYLE national grosses. Health of- they wouldn't fill theaters
NEW YORK (AP) — Ticket ficials are urging for those to more than 50% capacity
sales plunged to their low- who can stay home to to facilitate social distanc-
est levels in at least 20 years do so, to help stymie the ing. Others asked movie-
at North American movie spread of the virus. goers to leave empty seats
theaters as the coronavi- But the wide majority of around them. All pledged
rus pandemic led to one North American theaters to clean theaters in be-
of Hollywood's worst week- remained open for busi- tween screenings.
ends at the box office. ness over the weekend. Other theaters opted to
Receipts totaled about The continent's two larg- close completely, includ- This image released by Columbia Pictures shows Vin Diesel in a
$55.3 million in U.S. and est chains, AMC Theaters ing many in New York. scene from "Bloodshot."
Canada theaters, accord- and Regal Cinemas, said Continued on page 31 Associated Press
ing to studio estimates Sun-
day. Not since 2000 has
weekend box office rev-
enue been so low, accord-
ing to data firm Comscore,
when $54.5 million in tickets
were sold on a quiet Sep-
tember weekend. More
people went to the movies
the weekend after Sept. 11,
2001.
Disney's latest release from
Pixar, "Onward," remained
the top film, earning $10.5
million in its second week-
end. The Christian ro-
mance "I Still Believe" from
Lionsgate brought in $9.5
million. Sony's comic-book
adaptation "Bloodshot,"
with Vin Diesel, grossed an
estimated $9.3 million in its
debut. The Blumhouse hor-
ror satire "The Hunt" opened
with $5.3 million.
All of those totals were no-
tably below expectations.
Most films last week had
aimed to do 25% to 50%
better. The weekend's sales
overall were down 45%
from the weekend before,
according to Comscore.
While this weekend's crop
of films weren't expected
to compete with the same
timeframe last year, when
"Captain Marvel" was in re-
lease, revenue was down
60% from the same week-
end last year.
Pixar films virtually always
hold well for weeks, but
"Onward" dropped 73%
from its opening weekend.
"The Hunt," which remount-
ed its release after its debut
was canceled last fall fol-
lowing a wave of deadly
shootings, had hoped to
do twice as well.
Most of Europe's cinemas
have shuttered in recent
days, as have theaters
in China, India, Lebanon
and Kuwait. Those closures
have already slashed inter-