Weekend Wrap-Up: 2020 Suffers Its First Loss

February 11, 2020

Birds of Prey

It was bound to happen, I was just hoping it wouldn’t happen this soon, but 2020 suffered its first loss in the year-over-year comparison. Birds of Prey failed to live up to the very low end of expectations opening with just $33 million. On the positive side, the holdovers held on really well and that helped limit losses. In fact, the overall box office was $95 million this weekend, up 18% from last weekend. That said, this is still down 16% from the same weekend last year and this number is a lot more important. Year-to-date, 2020 is still ahead of 2019 by $62 million or 6.2% at $1.07 billion to $1.01 billion, so we clearly shouldn’t be panicking this early on, but there are some troubling signs at the box office.

Birds of Prey opened with $33.01 million over the weekend. This isn’t bad for a film that cost $82 million to make, assuming it does well internationally, but the early signs are not positive there either. The film did earn good reviews and a B plus from CinemaScore, so quality is not the issue here, but arguably marketing and especially making the film R-rated. Suicide Squad wasn’t R-rated, so I’m not sure why this film had to be, especially since Harley Quinn is popular with younger girls. There is a holiday next week and perhaps the film will have strong legs, but I’m not optimistic for its chances going forward.

On the other hand, Bad Boys for Life fell just 32% to $12.01 million over the weekend for a total of $166.33 million after four weeks of release. At this pace, the film would come awfully close to $200 million domestically, without the holiday next weekend. With the holiday, its chances of getting past that milestone are better than 50/50. This is great news for Sony, who have been doing well for the past couple of years.

1917 dipped just 3% to $9.24 million over the weekend for a running tally of $132.78 million. The film will have no trouble getting to $150 million domestically. Granted, it was an expensive movie to make with a production budget of $100 million, while its P&A budget, not to mention its Awards Season budget, could result in a total cost of double that. This means it still hasn’t broken even, but I strongly suspect it will relatively early in its home market run.

Dolittle also held on incredibly well down 14% to $6.53 million over the weekend for a total of $63.83 million after four weeks of release. The film has direct competition opening this Friday, but if it can weather that storm, then it could match its production budget worldwide. That won’t be enough to break even, but it will be enough to minimize losses.

Jumanji: The Next Level rounded out the top five, again, this time earning $5.56 million over the weekend for a total of $298.49 million after two months of release. Depending on when you are reading this, it might have already crossed $300 million domestically.

Looking in on the sophomore class, we find Gretel and Hansel in seventh place with $3.58 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $11.60 million. It dropped just 42%, which is excellent for a horror film, but it is sadly a case of too little, too late. It is a box office smash hit compared to The Rhythm Section, which plummeted 63% to just $1.01 million over the weekend for a two week total of $4.91 million. The film could have earned that during its opening weekend and it still would have been a bomb.

- Weekend Box Office Chart
- Friday Box Office Chart
- Thursday Box Office Chart

- Weekend Estimates: Harley Quinn Can’t Lead Her Film to Box Office Success
- Friday Estimates: Are We Witnessing 2020’s First Loss?
- Thursday Night Previews: Harley Hardly Sets the Box Office on Fire
- Weekend Predictions: Can Quinn Capture Audience’s Attention
- Weekend Theater Counts: Birds of Prey Lands as the Weeks Widest Release

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Bad Boys For Life, Dolittle, The Rhythm Section, Sonic The Hedgehog, Jumanji: The Next Level, 1917, Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), Gretel & Hansel, Margot Robbie