rators and cinema purists would have been a resounding “no.”
In normal times, those box office receipts would spell disaster. But today, it actually ranks as one of the stronger COVID-era opening weekends. HBO Max didn’t report how many viewers opted to stream “The Little Things.” However, Warner Bros. and its parent company WarnerMedia said the film “immediately shot up to No. 1” on HBO Max. It’s unclear what that benchmark means.
Still, these are bleak times for movie theater operators. Any film exhibitors hoping that ticket sales could return to pre-pandemic levels in 2021 were stymied by another round of release date delays. Earlier in January, MGM postponed the James Bond sequel “No Time to Die” from April to October. That prompted rival studios to once again push their films scheduled for early 2021, such as “Morbius,” “Ghostbusters Afterlife,” “Cinderella,” and “A Quiet Place Part II.
“The vaccination process will pick up through the spring as the supply bottlenecks open up,” Gross said. “The government will spend whatever it takes to make the vaccination campaign successful, including overcoming the new COVID variants.” Liam Neeson’s action thriller “The Marksman” plunged to the No. 4 spot after leading the box office the last two weekends. It made $1.25 million in its third outing for a domestic tally of $7.8 million. The movie is currently playing in 2,018 theaters.