In an unprecedented move, the coronavirus has forced studios to begin pulling their films from release as theater chains cut their seating capacity by 50%. The box office, much like everything else in the industry, is being affected. In fact, reports expect the entire industry to lose $20 billion.
Even though theaters could remain open, as the virus spreads, it’s likely to wind down with fewer and fewer butts in seats (please, please stay home and keep safe). This weekend is more than likely to be the final relevant box office to report for quite some time.
With that, two genre films did battle over Friday the 13th of March weekend.
The Valiant Universe kicked off with Bloodshot, which stars Vin Diesel as Ray Garrison, a man who is brought back from the dead as a lethal weapon, thanks to Rising Spirit Technologies’ use of nanotechnology.
Meagan Navarro reviewed the film for us and wrote, “There’s enough entertainment offered to those looking for mild popcorn fun, but beyond that, it adheres far too closely to the average origin blueprint.”
Pulling in $9.3M in its opening weekend, the comic adaptation allegedly holds a $45M price tag, which means it needs heavy international numbers to break even. With the pandemic being a global disaster, it’s unlikely to do so. Update: Bloodshot added $13M overseas for a global take of $22.3M.
In that respect, Universal’s The Hunt cost a reported $15M and is one of Blumhouse’s higher budgeted films. The once-delayed political thriller opened to only $5M here in the States, meaning that the global opening will have a major impact on the film’s box office life. Including marketing, things are looking grim.
In the film, “Twelve strangers wake up in a clearing. They don’t know where they are, or how they got there. They don’t know they’ve been chosen… for a very specific purpose … The Hunt.”
Meagan reviewed the film, writing that “The Hunt offers a lukewarm and predictable attempt at incendiary satire.”
