LOS ANGELES • Actor Liam Neeson's thriller Honest Thief limped to first place at the American box office, debuting at US$3.7 million (S$5 million).
Those ticket sales, among the lowest ever to land at No. 1, came in slightly ahead of director Christopher Nolan's Tenet and actor Robert De Niro's family comedy War With Grandpa.
Tenet, now in its seventh week of release, grossed US$1.6 million, bringing its United States haul to US$50.6 million.
The science-fiction epic from Warner Bros continues to fare better overseas. Tenet generated US$5 million at the international box office for a global haul of US$333.9 million.
Overall, it was another quiet time at the weekend box office as cinemas that reopened have resorted to reducing hours of operation or closing down again entirely due to low attendance.
Apprehension among moviegoers, coupled with the lack of new potential blockbusters, are to blame for lacklustre ticket sales.
Theatre owners argue that it is not fear keeping people from going to the movies, but the dearth of fresh product from major studios.
But Hollywood companies have been reluctant to unveil their biggest movies because cinemas in major markets such as New York and Los Angeles, which account for a bulk of ticket sales for any given movie, are not open.
A potential bright spot: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo last Saturday gave movie theatres outside of the city permission to reopen at reduced capacity starting on Friday. It remains to be seen whether the news will encourage studios to start unveiling major movies.
In the meantime, speciality studios such as 101 Studios and IFC Films have been supplying exhibitors with new indie dramas and comedies.
War With Grandpa collected US$2.5 million from 2,260 locations in its second weekend of release, boosting domestic receipts to US$7.2 million.
Disney, meanwhile, continues to find modest success with re-releases of past favourites.
Director Tim Burton's 1993 holiday classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas, brought in US$1.3 million between last Friday and Sunday. And Hocus Pocus, another three-decade-old hit, stirred up US$765,000 over the weekend.
Romantic drama 2 Hearts, starring Jacob Elordi of The Kissing Booth (2018) and Euphoria (2019 to present) fame, pulled in US$565,000 from 1,683 screens over the weekend.
Box-office analysts suggest that young adult-skewing movies, the kind that regularly populates Netflix queues, have not been a huge theatrical draw during the coronavirus pandemic.
"Based on at least three youth-oriented movies released during the last month and a half, teenagers and young adults do not appear ready to return to the movies," said Mr David A. Gross, who runs movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research.
REUTERS
