While a winter slate light on big-budget tentpoles, theaters might be stuck waiting for ”The Batman“ to arrive
The windfall comes from “Spider-Man: No Way Home” fade away, movie theaters are facing the sobering reality that the first two months of the 2022 box office look to be a serious dry spell — and that would have been the case even before the Omicron surge swung a wrecking ball into the Q1 release slate.
Sony has moved the Jared Leto-led Marvel movie in the last week “Morbius,”From late January through April 1. From late January to April 1. “Turning Red”Instead of being released in theatres, it is now the third consecutive feature film from Disney+.
That means that theaters will soon be lacking all three of the major ingredients for box office riches at this time of year — holiday holdovers, Oscar contenders and major new releases — with only the prospect of Sony’s Tom Holland action film “Uncharted” on Feb. 18 and Warner Bros.’ “The Batman”On March 4, there will be a huge lure for audiences.
The box office performance in January/February was mixed before the pandemic. Films like “Hidden Figures,” “Bad Boys for Life,” and Marvel’s “Black Panther”These early-year slots were a hit with audiences, and they were paired with December releases like “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle”Oscar nominees “La La Land”To provide a solid beginning for the year.
But that hasn’t always been the case. 2019These are early-year sequels “Glass”And “The Lego Movie 2”They performed worse than their predecessors, and didn’t keep the momentum going. “Aquaman”The Christmas before. The Oscar field was not a success in that year’s Oscars. “Vice”And “Green Book”The film did not rank among the top 10 highest-grossing films in January 20219. Domestic grosses for the first two months of 2019 were $1.43 Billion, which is the lowest level in six years.
These 2019 trends will be repeated on a larger scale for the box office at least for the next four weeks. “No Way Home,”This weekend’s $33 million grossing will be a little help. But with Universal’s animated hit “Sing 2” now available on-demand, there won’t be much holiday holdover support from any other film.
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