landscape-desktop.764.430.jpg — “Onward” Tops, but Struggles Due to COVID-19

By: Keaton Marcus

Diving into the weekend, animated film Onward topped the charts, but ended considerably behind expectations, and the Coronavirus has seemingly affected its performance. Also, without the strong international support, it will likely succumb to its budget. Otherwise, The Invisible Man had a surprisingly good hold in runner-up, beating other new release The Way Back, which didn’t exactly shock people. Sonic the Hedgehog and The Call of the Wild finished in fourth and fifth.

Topping the box office was Disney and Pixar’s Onward which sold an estimated 40M in ticket sales, playing in a massive 4,310 theaters and averaging $9,280 per-screen. While this isn’t just lower than usual for the studio, the movie couldn’t even break its 50M expectations, with some people that said 55-60M+. Comparatively, while the film barely topped The Good Dinosaur (39.1M and the lowest opening for Pixar), it lost to the likes of Coco (50.8M), the Cars trilogy (53.6-66.1M), Brave (66.3M) and especially to the big films of the franchise such as Toy Story 4 (120.9M), Finding Dory (135M) and Incredibles 2 (182.6M). Those movies above have an average multiplier of 3.3x, which would mean a 132M domestic finish for the film, the second lowest grossing Pixar movie domestically.

Internationally, things aren’t terrific either, with Onward discovering just 28M from 47 markets, indicating a global launch of just 68M. Leading the way was a 4.4M opening in the UK, followed by France (3.3M), Mexico (3M), Russia (2.1M), Spain (1.9M), Germany (1.9M) and Brazil (1.1M). Upcoming releases include mid-April openings for Korea, Italy and Japan, followed by Australia, Turkey, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Taiwan along with a date waiting to be set for China.

Review wise, this animated feature generated some positive response from the critics, and the usual excellent reception from audiences. On Sweet and Sour, we have it at a solid 75/100 “sweet”, calling it a “suitably entertaining Pixar film with a likeable cast and dazzling visuals.” RottenTomatoes approved of it even more, giving it 86% “Certified Fresh” based on 229 reviews with a consensus of: “It may suffer in comparison to Pixar’s classics, but Onward makes effective use of the studio’s formula — and stands on its own merits as a funny, heartwarming, dazzlingly animated adventure.” Audiences gave it a 96% approval rating on RT and a A- CinemaScore.

In runner-up, we saw Universal’s The Invisible Man continue its strong performance with a solid 46% hold, and a sophomore session of 15.2M, crossing 52.6M domestically after 10 days in release. This is pacing around four million ahead of Insidious: The Last Key, which finished with 67.7M in North America, but with weaker weekend-to-weekend holds. Sweet and Sour has also recently posted our review of the film, which stands at 90/100 “sweet”. Overseas, the movie added another 17.3M for an international gross of 45.6M and a worldwide cume of 98.2M on just a seven million budget.

Thirdly, WB’s sports drama The Way Back had its debut with an estimated 8.5M from 2,718 locations, averaging a weak $3,127 per-screen. While this isn’t exactly fatal for the 20 million production, its behind the original 10-15M expectations. The film also kicked off its overseas run with 640K from 14 markets, for a worldwide opening of 9.1M. Australia led the way with 219K with several upcoming releases of key markets in April. Good news is that the reviews were extremely positive to go along with a rock-solid B+ CinemaScore.

In fourth, Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog kept running with an estimated 8M, sliding 51% for a domestic cume of 140.8M. Internationally, the film grossed another 12M for an overseas total of 154.8M and a global haul now topping 295.6M.

Rounding out the top five was 20th Century Studios’ The Call of the Wild which earned 7M in its third weekend, dropping 48% and reaching just 57.4M after 17 days in release. Overseas, things are also getting hazy as the movie added only 4.8M this weekend for a foreign gross of only 42.1M and a worldwide total of 99.5M as it continues to fail to chase its 135 million cost.

Next weekend we see three new releases hit theaters. Leading the pack is Lionsgate’s faith-based film I Still Believe (15M expectations), followed by Sony’s release of the Vin Diesel-starring Bloodshot (10M predictions) and the controversial Blumhouse thriller The Hunt (7M forecast).

TOP FIVE:

Onward
The Invisible Man
The Way Back
Sonic the Hedgehog
The Call of the Wild