Box office plunges to 22 year low amid coronavirus panic

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

It feels like we're in the end times. The one safety net we all have is usually the movies but amid the coronavirus pandemic, it appears that everyone decided to stay at home.

At $55.3 million, this represents at 22-year box office low in terms of overall attendance. The last low happened in 1998, the Oct. 30-Nov. 1 weekend when John Carpenter’s VAMPIRES  led all movies for a top ten tally of $55.2 million. Overall, this weekend was down 45% from last weekend, when market conditions were arguably normal, and off 60% from the same weekend a year ago.

Some people have blamed the quality of movies being out with such mediocre efforts like BLOODSHOT, I STILL BELIEVE & THE HUNT entering the box office marketplace but another 25 theaters closed overnight, raising the number to around 109, with some big circuits shuttering in New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Boston, and Seattle. Essentially, the industry has gone dark and when a Pixar movie drops 73.1% in its second weekend, we know we have a problem,

With new wide releases coming in the next few weeks, this may be the new normal for a bit. Someone asked me wasn't it slow at theaters post 9/11 and it definitely was but with $66.4 million during that time, it still fared better than this weekend. I honestly think streaming is going to surge during this time and that's when you'll find that everyone is still watching just content simply because they don't have to leave their homes.

Did YOU check out any movies this weekend?