New York Mayor Andrew Cuomo announced today that movie theater capacity in his state will be raised to 33% on April 26. New York City theaters first re-opened March 5 at 25% capacity.
The Governor announced yesterday that 41.4% of New Yorkers have received at least on vaccine and 28.1% have completed their vaccine series. The state had 3,783 total hospitalizations for COVID-19 yesterday. Also, trends continue to show a decline over the past several weeks.
This has to be good news for chains like AMC Theatres. To be clear, AMC is New York City’s largest movie theater operator. Likewise, recent box office performance hints at a return to theaters. Godzilla vs. Kong surpassed our estimates last week to make $48.5 million in its first five days of its U.S. debut earlier this month. Furthermore, the monster film racked up another $7.7 million to lead the U.S. Domestic Box Office for the weekend of April 16. The Warner Bros. release has made $80.5 million total so far. Impressive, given limited theater capacities and some cities still banning theater food and drink sales.
Domestic Box Office Estimates – Weekend of April 16
| Title | Weekend Total |
| Godzilla vs. Kong | $7,705,000 |
| Nobody | $2,520,000 |
| Unholy, The | $2,060,000 |
| Raya And The Last Dragon | $1,900,000 |
| Tom & Jerry | $1,090,000 |
| Voyagers | $790,000 |
| Girl Who Believes in Miracles, The | $561,000 |
| In The Earth | $506,000 |
| Courier, The | $462,830 |
| Croods: A New Age, The | $310,000 |
| Chaos Walking | $215,000 |
| Marksman, The | $160,000 |
While the box office receipts of the top 12 films declined $6.5 million from the previous weekend, there are signs of life. First, there were no major releases this past weekend other than In The Earth. That played in a paltry 547 locations and made $506,000. Average per location was encouraging at $925.
Secondly, actioner Nobody and horror film The Unholy have proved to be durable. The Bob Odenkirk action film brought in $2.5 million with a $1,048 location average- good for #2. The third place The Unholy counted receipts of $2.1 million with a $1,001 location average. Together, both films declined only by 10% week over week.
This upcoming weekend will bring Mortal Kombat, based on the video game, to theaters and HBO Max. An action fest that will also appeal to fans of the 1995 original. That original brought in $124.7 million in box office.
Interest in the Mortal Kombat film, based on Google Search Trend data, is peaking. According to Google, there is particular interest from those in Nevada, Texas, Arizona, Washington DC and Arkansas.
