Welcome back to Box Office Breakdown, the weekly segment where I analyze the top ten highest grossing films of the past weekend.
Unfortunately, since most theatres are still closed down due to the COVID-19 and will continue to be for a while, we are unable to analyze the box office as studios are not reporting weekend projections. Due to this situation, studios are releasing their films exclusively on VOD, allowing audiences to watch them within the comfort of their own home. While theatres are temporarily shut down for an indefinite amount of time, we are dedicating this segment to analyzing how each film fares on VOD.
Last week, Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated blockbuster Tenet was delayed indefinitely, alongside Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and Mulan. Meanwhile, Top Gun: Maverick and A Quiet Place Part II have been officially postponed to 2021. This news came as a huge disappointment to the film community as it appeared that we wouldn’t be getting any major theatrical releases for a while. However, Warner Bros. recently announced that Tenet would be released in Canada on August 27th, followed by a limited release in the U.S. during Labor Day weekend. Depending on the success of this release strategy, we may begin to see rival studios that had previously postponed their films, follow in Warner Bros. footsteps and position their films for an early fall release date.
This past weekend was relatively slow in terms of VOD releases. The biggest new release was the independent cult-horror film Amulet, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to generally positive reviews. The film unsurprisingly hasn’t attracted general audiences, but it may do well with horror fans if the word of mouth continues.
The most high profile new release this past weekend came from streaming, as Netflix released the sequel to their commercially successful teen comedy The Kissing Booth. Despite receiving very poor reception from critics, The Kissing Booth 2 has done very with its target audience and is currently the #1 trending film on Netflix.
Amazon Prime released Radioactive, which is a biopic following the life of iconic scientist Marie Curie, starring Rosamund Pike. The film premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival to generally mixed reviews, with many criticizing its paint by numbers approach to telling a fascinating story. It doesn’t seem to be doing well with audiences, as it is currently holding a 48% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
As of recent, the Digital Entertainment Group have been putting together a weekly chart listing the films/TV series’ that have generated the most sales domestically across all VOD platforms, as well as BluRay/DVD sales. Instead of following the iTunes Charts, we will be referring to the DEG charts from now on in this section of the Box Office Breakdown segment.
9. Bruce Lee: The Greatest Hits
5. Yellowstone: Season 2
4. Yellowstone: Season 3
3. Yellowstone: Season 1
2. The Outpost
In the coming weeks, we will continue to analyze the state of VOD releases and will provide updates regarding upcoming films.
Follow my blog on Instagram @moviereviews100!
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook. Also subscribe to our YouTube channel.
