The ever-increasing availability of vaccines in the US and the increase in the number of theaters open to the public made last weekend the highest-grossing, perhaps, during the COVID-19 epidemic. In North America (USA and Canada together), the new action-thriller Nobody was ahead of everyone, taking first place with $6.7 million from 2,460 screens. The average fee was $2,724 per movie theater. At the same time, let’s not forget that the maximum occupancy of a movie theater in Los Angeles, the most important for movie distribution, cannot exceed 100 people per session.
There are two interesting things to note about this film. First up: Universal’s film, in which Bob Odenkirk of the TV series Better Call Saul plays a somewhat boring everyman who, when faced with the boss of the so-called “Russian mafia”, shows murderous skills that clearly did not come from mowing lawns in the suburbs, was staged by Russian (and, to be more precise, already international) director Ilya Naishuller. In other times, we could be talking about tens of millions of collections of this skillfully made action with a hero very accessible to identify with him. Moreover, and this is the second important circumstance, the film was not released either before or simultaneously with the “live” distribution on streaming platforms. As it has become fashionable recently, even with some potential blockbusters, in particular with the picture of the studio Warner Bros. Godzilla vs. Kong (Godzilla vs. Kong), which will be released in the United States simultaneously in theaters and on the HBO Max streaming platform, recently launched by the Warner Media conglomerate. It will happen in America on March 31. Read more about the phenomenon of this film outside of America.
The real sensation of the past weekend took place in 38 foreign countries, where Godzilla vs. Kong debuted simply with a “pre-Covid” box office of $121.8 million! In China, the new Godzilla cost $70.3 million – this is 82% of the box office in the country! The film opened with $6.3 million in Mexico and Australia, $5.8 million in Russia, $5.2 million in Taiwan, and $4.8 million in India.
Ryan and the Last Dragon earned $3.9 million in 28 countries. Now its overseas collection has reached $54.2 million, and its global total is $82.6 million. The main “supplier” of money was China ($18.7 million) and Russia ($10.9 million). The re-release of global box office champion Avatar this weekend brought in $3.5 million in the same China, bringing the film’s “reboot” total to $51.7 million to date. And this is not counting the original release of the film in this country. Helpful hint to other studios about reboots! If the Chinese allow, which is not guaranteed.
But let’s return to the less sensational native penates. In second place in its fourth weekend was Disney’s Ryan and the Last Dragon, which collected $3.5 million from 2,212 theaters. The Tom and Jerry live-action hybrid took third place with $2.51 million from 2,464 screens.