The Covid Box Office Chronicles Part 2: January - March 2020... The Calm Before the Storm!
Last time, in a series of editorials by The Streamin’ Demon himself, we took an analytical eye to the last “normal year“ the cinematic landscape had before COVID-19. And now… he looks at “the calm before the storm,“ those first few months the world changed…
January 2020 started the year in movies with one bona fide hit, Bad Boys for Life, the third movie in the buddy cop trilogy starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and duds that came and went like Dolittle, Underwater, Like a Boss, and The Turning. So, you know, January.
Within that month, on the 21st, in the state of Washington, a resident that had recently returned from a trip to China had the nation’s first case of a potentially fatal virus that the World Health Organization was noticing to outbreak in China; coronavirus. Fear was beginning to spread through the states. Regardless, the movies were still there as an escape, just like they were in every catastrophe before.
On February 3rd, Covid-19 was officially declared a public health issue in the United States, like it was proving to be to the rest of the world. But again, people still saw refuge in the cinemas.
February saw the release of the new DC Extended Universe movie Birds of Prey and Sonic the Hedgehog, both of which became the Number one movie in America during their respective weekend, the latter largely thanks to Paramount answering the complaints of fans and fixing the blue speed demon’s design after that infamous trailer where he was plunged into the uncanny valley. Meanwhile, The Call of the Wild an adventure movie with Harrison Ford, bombed, largely BECAUSE its main CGI lead couldn’t dig his way out of the uncanny valley.
Other movies that barely made a splash at all were the horror adaption of the classic tv series, Fantasy Island, and the romance drama, The Photograph.
Overall, though, it was still a month that provided audiences some fun thanks to Harley Quinn and Sonic, and in terms of awards seasons, Parasite became the first non-English speaking film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, marking a wonderous occasion for international filmmaking.
But things were not lighting up when it came to that virus. And as cases began to rise, the movie business, like just about all others, began to act accordingly.
On March 3rd, No Time to Die, the new Bond movie was pushed back from April 10th to November 25th by MGM, making it Hollywood’s first response to the pandemic. This, followed by Greyhound, My Spy, Peter Rabbit 2, and F9: The Fast Saga getting the same treatment, and The New Mutants, Mulan, The Lovebirds, Blue Story, A Quiet Place Part 2, Spiral, Run, Antebellum, The Woman in the Window, Black Widow, Charm City Kings, Minions 2, Scoob!, Malignant, In The Heights, and Wonder Woman 1984, all being postponed indefinitely, were a powerful sign that large non-essential gatherings would not be safe during a virus such as this, and theaters would be no exception, any more than concerts, conventions, sporting events, and all other public outings.
On March 11th, the World Health Organization officially declared Covid-19 a pandemic. March 13th-15th 2020, became the darkest weekend in the history of moviegoing. The top five in those three days were:
Onward, Pixar’s latest flick. Bloodshot, a comic book movie with Vin Diesel. I Still Believe, a drama about Christian singer, Jeremy Camp. The Invisible Man, a reboot of the iconic horror movie monster. And The Hunt, a highly political thriller that was supposed to be released in 2019 but was postponed due to controversy. The Way Back, a basketball drama with Ben Affleck that debuted the weekend prior came in at seventh.
The accumulated gross of that weekend was 15 million dollars. The Monday after, all theaters nationwide would be closed by order of federal law.
As a whole, the first few months of 2020 seemed like the last breath for all kinds of genres that were regularly shown at multiplexes: from superhero movies to family adventure films, horror reboots to buddy cop comedies. Whether we would see these types of films in cinemas again or not became the ultimate question for moviegoers.
An era of moviegoing that had been going for decades, a seemingly never-ending chain of movies that would be distributed and be outgrossed by future releases, suddenly came to a screeching halt. The movie theater industry was at a standstill like it never was before, and with a pandemic still raging and the advent of several major streaming services to serve as safe substitutes, its future became hazy and grim.
Luckily for distributors, unprecedented solutions to unprecedented times would be formed.
Special thanks to Jacob for the musings on the movies he brought this go around. Next time… a changing trajectory for cinema!
Hello, Renegades! Neoplasmic here with an article on the announcements of Street Fighter 6 Year 2 DLC characters, including some guests from the SNK universe! Also, hot and fresh from the Nintendo Direct on June 18th, we have the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection reveal! More Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves characters fill out the roster! And we talk about 2XKO, Tekken 8, Mortal Kombat 1, and some indie fighters like Coreupt and Umbral Core!